Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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58. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on his engagement with Speaker Pelosi on his recent trip to the US; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47166/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I met with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Thursday 23rd September, during my official visit to Washington, DC. The engagement was a very useful follow-up to her meeting with the Taoiseach in March, as well as my previous engagement with Speaker Pelosi in September 2020.

The discussion focused mainly on developments with the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland and EU-UK relations post-Brexit, issues in which the Speaker has shown a strong interest, and which she has also discussed in the past week with British Prime Minister Johnson. I thanked Speaker Pelosi for her support for the peace process and stability in Northern Ireland, and took the opportunity to update her on Ireland and the European Union's position on the Protocol and on Brexit. We also discussed Ireland-UK trade in the post-Brexit context.

The meeting also briefly touched on the upcoming COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November.

The Government welcomes the consistent engagement of the US Congress on the peace process in Northern Ireland, which continues to attract support on a bipartisan basis across the political system in the United States. Limiting the challenges posed by Brexit in Northern Ireland will be essential in the period ahead and support from the United States will continue to be critical in protecting our shared achievements and making further progress into the future. We will continue to ensure that the Irish perspective is heard and understood in Washington through high-level contact, as well as through the ongoing engagement by our Embassy.