Yes, I am perfectly happy to accept that. That was in the negotiation before I arrived. I worked closely with the former Member for St Helens South when he was Secretary of State and I was his shadow. As shadow, I spent a lot of time going to Dublin, talking to both parties, and to Washington, and that continued when I became Secretary of State. The point I am making is that in the time I have been around, the EU has not played a key negotiating role. Money has been going in that we can easily replicate and the peace process has moved on. I want to correct the narrative that the EU played a key role in the whole process.
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It is interesting that the Republic of Ireland is now moving on as well. I had interesting letter from Anthony Coughlan, the associate professor emeritus in social policy at Trinity College, Dublin. He has produced an interesting paper on why Brexit should be accompanied by Irexit—Ireland exit. To give the House a feel for it, the third paragraph of his letter says:
“Now that the Republic has become a net contributor to the EU Budget, and the fact that it will be doing nearly two-thirds of its foreign trade with English speaking countries outside the EU when the UK leaves, as well as for the other reasons set out in the report, it is clearly in its best interests that it should leave the EU at or around the same time as the UK does.”
That shows that there are forward-thinking people in Dublin, and brings attention to the extraordinarily close relations we currently have with Dublin, which will continue.
We have clear indications in the White Paper about the common travel area. There will be continued close relations and close movement, which is to the advantage of all citizens in Northern Ireland and the Republic.