Attending the UK's annual party conferences

On account of Ireland’s deep interest in developments in British politics and public policy, our Embassy has for many years been represented at the annual party conferences of the major British parties. This year, I attended conferences in Brighton, Liverpool and Birmingham. At each conference, we organise events to which we invite MPs, senor political figures and friends of Ireland within each of the parties. This year our main theme was the implications for Ireland of the outcome of the EU referendum in June. At my various party conference engagements this year, I spoke along the following lines.

2016 has been a year when we have been encouraged to look back at the momentous events of 1916, which reshaped our two countries and the relations between us. Our commemorations of the Easter Rising and the Irish involvement in the Battle of the Somme have lead to a mature appreciation of the complexities of that formative era in the history of our nation. The result of your EU referendum also requires us to look forward and to address the challenges that changing circumstances will inevitably bring.

Ireland and the UK joined the EU together in 1973 and have developed a very positive partnership within the EU. We therefore regret that the UK has decided to leave the EU and we must now seek to minimise any negative consequences stemming from that decision.

We have five broad areas of concern.

First, Ireland will remain in the EU and have a vital interest in the future success of the Union. We will want the outcome of negotiations on Britain's exit from the EU to serve the interests of the EU and its relations with our nearest neighbour.

Second, we will want to preserve our mutually-beneficial economic ties with the UK. The £50 billion in trade between us annually sustains 200,000 jobs in Ireland and a similar number in the EU. This means that we have a powerful stake in the UK maintaining close trading ties with the EU - as close as possible to what currently exists - but we recognise the negotiating challenges this will pose.

Third, with our joint responsibility for the NI peace process, we have a special concern for the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland. Even after the UK leaves the EU, practically everyone in NI will be entitled to an Irish passport and thus to be an EU citizen. In particular, we will want to preserve the current open border in Ireland. It would be enormously detrimental to turn the clock back and to put barriers in the way of the further development of relations on the island of Ireland.

Fourth, we want to preserve the advantages of the common travel area which has served both our peoples well over the decades of its existence. The UK economy has over the years benefited substantially from the contribution of Irish citizens while British people have likewise played a positive role in Ireland. Irish people are to be found in every walk of British life and, for example, there are more than 60,000 Irish directors of UK companies.

And fifth, we want to keep Irish-UK relations on the positive track on which they have progressed in recent decades. This will have to be done in a new set of circumstances in which our Ministers and officials will no longer be meeting on a regular basis at EU meetings. It will require a renewed effort, and one which we are determined to undertake.

Irish-UK relations have made great strides in recent times and we need to work together to ensure that the UK's exit from the EU does not come between us or complicate the situation in Northern Ireland. We accept that there will come a time when the UK is no longer an EU member and Ireland will continue to be a member. This will be a new era for both of us and we need to work together to manage its consequences and avoid potentially negative implications.

We welcome the greater clarity introduced by the PM's speech this week and recognise that many potential variants exist within the objectives she has set out. These will be the focus of the negotiations that will take place between the UK and the EU once Article 50 is triggered.

Daniel Mulhall is Ireland's Ambassador in London