121. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to report on the progress made on a new double taxation convention between the UK and Ireland with the aim of improving cross border labour mobility. [68631/26]

122. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether he intends to engage with the British Government on the issue of cross-Border workers, people who live in the North and work in the South, who face numerous tax anomalies. [68200/26]

Cross-Border working is an increasingly important feature in our all-island economy, with thousands of people crossing the Border every day to work. Brexit and the growth of remote and hybrid working have exposed practical difficulties for workers and employers dealing with two tax systems and different rules. Negotiations on a new double taxation convention between the Irish and British Governments present an important opportunity to simplify these arrangements. What progress has been made in these negotiations and when are they expected to conclude? What practical improvements will they deliver for cross-Border workers and for their employers?

I propose to take questions Nos. 121 and 122 together.

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for the question and for her ongoing engagement on this issue. This is a matter that I am determined to get done. I had a good discussion with the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, John Healy, on the matter when he was in Dublin for the informal ECOFIN meeting. The two questions concern cross-Border working on the island of Ireland. I can inform Deputy Conway-Walsh that progressing and enhancing the all-island labour market is a priority for me, my Department and the Government of Ireland.

The tax treatment associated with cross-Border working has been subject to ongoing discussions in recent years, particularly in light of the increase in remote working as a result of the pandemic. However, cross-Border working gives rise to complex issues involving shared taxing rights between different jurisdictions. There are potential issues for employees, employers, and Exchequer revenues, with a wide range of policy issues requiring consideration including around double non-taxation and the likes. There is also the need to respect long-established international tax principles. Nonetheless, it is absolutely necessary from an all-Ireland labour market perspective to find a satisfactory solution to the issue. I am pleased that the Irish and British Governments are committed to finding a solution.

Deputy Conway-Walsh will be aware that the second annual UK-Ireland Summit, which was held in Cork on 12 March, acknowledged and committed to this work being undertaken in order to address the complexities of the cross-Border issue. The joint statement that arose from that summit welcomed agreement to engage on reaching a decision on this issue and the commitment to reviewing a bilateral Ireland-UK approach to address concerns arising from hybrid cross-Border work.

Engagement on this matter between my departmental officials, Revenue officials and His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, HMRC, commenced in 2025 to facilitate an exchange of views, share experiences and consider recent developments in relation to cross-Border tax issues. Revenue and HMRC officials are currently considering various approaches in the context of a broader renegotiation of the double taxation agreement with the UK, with a view to finding a solution on cross-Border working and also to update and modernise the double taxation agreement, which is now almost 50 years old. The Deputy will be aware that the double taxation agreement is an international treaty. Such agreements are strictly confidential while under negotiation. As this particular agreement is still in the process of renegotiation, I cannot discuss further details of either the process or the substance of the negotiations other than to say that all double taxation agreements must be brought before the Oireachtas prior to ratification.

Revenue is aware of the uncertainty faced by employees and employers regarding the taxation of employment income. Where the employee can avail of a hybrid working engagement, he or she could live in one jurisdiction and work in the other. These are common daily realities for many people. The negotiations are at an advanced stage. I engaged recently in Dublin with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the progress. We are committed to finding a mutually acceptable solution to cross-Border hybrid working. While I cannot give the House a definitive timeline, I can say that the negotiations are going well and I expect we will bring them to a conclusion to everybody's satisfaction. I will keep the Deputy informed.

I appreciate that the Tánaiste cannot give the details here tonight. I am raising this issue because I want it to be an absolute priority. Ten years on from the Brexit referendum, cross-Border workers are still dealing every day with uncertainty and complexity. In excess of 18,000 workers crossed the Border, along with €17 billion in trade, in 2025. We need to make it as seamless as possible for workers and employers.

A few months ago, we spoke in this Chamber about the fiscal implications of a united Ireland. Here we have the fiscal implications of partition on our island. People living on one side of the Border and working on the other can find themselves navigating two tax administrations alongside different rules on social protection, pensions and employment rights. Where somebody works from home for part of the week, questions can arise around tax liabilities and employer obligations. This creates uncertainty, not only for workers, but also for businesses that might otherwise recruit people from across the Border. We should be making it easier to live, work and employ people on an all-island basis, rather than allowing administrative barriers to discourage labour mobility.

I agree with that fully. While we are here talking, quite rightly, about an all-island economy and the better shared future we want to build, I am conscious of the very tense situation in the North tonight. With the Taoiseach, I engaged on that today with the Deputy's party leader and with Michelle O'Neill. We are all thinking tonight of a community in which people are feeling a sense of trauma and retraumatisation. Nobody ever wants to see us brought back to the previous time. It would be odd to have the conversation arising out of these questions without acknowledging that context and backdrop.

The Deputy is right that there is too much conversation in the media of what is nearly a gotcha question as to how much a unified island would cost. There would also be huge benefits from an all-island economy. I welcome her constructive engagement on the discussion we had in this House on the dynamic effects. There would be some upfront costs, of course, but there also would be huge benefits. The idea of having to give one figure for the cost is not helpful. I try to put useful data on the record of the House.

In the here and now, as we prepare to build our shared future and, I hope, a unified island into the future, there are practical issues arising for cross-Border workers. There are people who live on one side of the Border and work on the other. There are people working some days on one side of the Border and some days on the other. We need to fix this issue and get it right. It is a personal priority for me and for my Department, and also for Revenue from a practical point of view. In fairness, I think it is also a priority for the UK Treasury. It is an outcome of the UK-Ireland summit in Cork last year. I am committed to getting it done and we want it done as quickly as possible. The fact that we are also doing some broader work is not to delay that. The double taxation agreement review is also a good thing in terms of east-west processes. I will let the Deputy know as soon as we have progress on that. Both the Chancellor of the Exchequer and I have noted the good progress that is being made.

I, too, send solidarity to the residents of the Garvaghy Road. What is happening there is an absolute disgrace. I appeal to the Tánaiste, as a member of the Government and leader of his party, to get the Taoiseach and the Government to act immediately. We cannot let this continue. We know what needs to be done. There will be no march down the Garvaghy Road. People need to understand that. The Secretary of State must play the role he has to play in this as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. We met the residents here last week. What they have been put through is not right, and it is not right for it to continue another day. We cannot be spectators in this. The Government has a role to play, as does the British Government. There must be intervention. There is no way that the Parades Commission should ever have made that decision. It was totally wrong, and it was a wrong done to every person on this island.

The Parades Commission got this extraordinarily wrong. I am very clear on that. There has been good engagement with the Deputy's party leader and with Michelle O'Neill in her capacity as party vice president. To be fair to everybody, the Taoiseach is extraordinarily engaged on this issue; of that there is absolutely no doubt. My colleague, the Minister for foreign affairs, is in the North this evening. We are engaging closely with the Deputy's party colleagues.

I, too, had the opportunity to meet the Garvaghy Road residents when they were here last week. What really struck me was that they are decent people who all have simply worked far too hard for far too long to ever go back to the situation of the past. The Deputy will know this, because she has been up there with the community, but they told me of the young people who had grown up expecting this conflict to be just a distant memory. We are never going back and we cannot go back.

The most important thing in the here and now is that space be created. I do not want to say anything to cut across that process other than that we are, and will remain, very engaged as a Government and as co-guarantors of a peace agreement that so many people have worked so hard to get to this point. I heard a woman speaking on "Morning Ireland" this morning who is a Garvaghy Road resident. She talked about how her children were growing up playing with children from another community tradition in a way that would not have been imaginable in the past. Even if this issue ended today, and we all hope it does, there is a level of trauma and retraumatisation that is real after the events of the past few days. We will all have to work together on that in the time ahead.

We continue to work together in a sensible, all-island way to resolve the taxation issue for the future. There are very practical implications for people, regardless of their political tradition. We can do much better for cross-Border workers and I am determined to bring the matter to a close.