Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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71. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to safeguard Common Travel Area provisions and Northern Ireland peace-process commitments given recent UK policy shifts including refugee application suspension and ECHR departure advocacy. [46825/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Safeguarding and protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the Common Travel Area remain fundamental priorities for the Irish Government.

The Common Travel Area (CTA) facilitates Irish and British citizens to move and reside freely across Ireland and the UK while maintaining access for citizens to a range of reciprocal rights and privileges central to everyday life. While it predates the Good Friday Agreement, the CTA is a fundamental underpinning to both the Agreement and the wider peace process. It facilitates the cross-border nature of many people’s lives on the island of Ireland, and it is essential to realising the birth-right of those born in Northern Ireland to identify as Irish or British or both, as set out by the Agreement.

In 2019, the Irish and UK Governments signed a high level Memorandum of Understanding related to the CTA. It covers movement of Irish and British citizens, and, inter alia, the right to reside, the right to work, healthcare, social protection, social housing, education, and voting. The two Governments also agreed an accompanying Joint Statement on the MoU, in which they committed to maintaining the CTA ‘in all circumstances’ and ‘to undertake all the work necessary, including through legislative provision, to ensure that the agreed CTA rights and privileges are protected.’

The British and Irish Governments oversee the operation of the Common Travel Area through regular meetings between British and Irish officials, including a CTA Plenary, which meets twice yearly.

Supporting this, the Common Travel Area Forum (CTAF), co-chaired by the UK Home Office and Ireland’s Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is a longstanding structure for regular engagement between UK and Irish Departments on CTA immigration and operational issues. It provides a framework for a strategic approach to the CTA and policies underpinning operational cooperation, intelligence sharing, border processes and border security and asylum processes. This includes ensuring compliance with international law, including the European Convention on Human Rights.

I am aware of suggestions from some quarters in the UK, including opposition parties, that the UK could exit the ECHR while remaining in compliance with its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and the British-Irish Agreement. I spoke on this issue at this year’s annual conference of the British Irish Association on 5 September.

I was clear that the ECHR is woven into the fabric of the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions, comprising a core part of the delicate balances in the Agreement. It is cited by the Agreement as a vital safeguard that ensures the successful operation of the Agreement’s institutions and the protection of Northern Ireland’s communities.

The ECHR does not take sides, and its guarantees cannot be negotiated away. It plays a vital role in ensuring that the protection of human rights remains at the heart of civic life, politics and societal change.