Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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100. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has spoken with his French counterpart in relation to his initial comments regarding his reluctance to the flex-tension on the Brexit date. [44490/19]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I speak regularly with all my EU counterparts.

We have always said that an extension is better than a no deal outcome and we welcome the fact that EU 27 leaders unanimously agreed to extend the deadline of the Article 50 process to 31 January 2020. However, if the Agreement is ratified before then, the UK may exit the EU earlier.

We hope that the extra time provided by the extension will be used to ratify the Agreement, in order to ensure an orderly withdrawal of the UK.