Deputy Carthy has the next question but we are literally out of time. There is a minute and a half left. Does the Deputy want 30 seconds to put his question?
Thursday, 27 April 2023
Questions (13)
Oral answers (5 contributions)
Matt Carthy
Question:13. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on his recent engagement with representatives of the British Government. [19752/23]
View answerVery briefly then, will the Tánaiste report on his recent engagements with the British Government? I focus particularly on the so-called legacy Bill legislation.
We are dealing with Question No. 13.
It relates to engagements with the British Government. In the limited time he is apparently going to have, I ask the Tánaiste to reflect on his engagements in respect of the legacy Bill.
I have had regular interactions with the British Government in respect of the legacy Bill, especially in the context of the Good Friday Agreement. As outlined earlier, I attended the Queen's University events and so forth. I met the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, in person at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February. We have made very clear, as I did in my speech in Queen's University last week, the Government's opposition to the legacy Bill and the need for it to be paused in the Westminster Parliament. I have also met with many victims' groups as well. They are all united in their opposition to this legislation. We could not have been clearer about this in the meetings we have had to date with the British Government, including when I met the British Prime Minister last year, and the Taoiseach has continued in this vein, and in engagement with the Secretary of State. We have also raised our opposition to the legacy Bill and asked for it to be paused at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.