Our corporate immigration team will continue to provide updates on changes or clarifications occurring in the run up to Brexit in 2019. 

Common Travel Area Update

Ahead of a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council in London today, the Irish and United Kingdom (UK) governments signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which is an agreement that the free movement of people and access to social security, health and education already provided under the Common Travel Area (CTA) between British and Irish citizens will continue after the UK leaves the European Union. 

This MOU follows the signing of a Convention on Social Security between both governments on 1 February 2019, which seeks to preserve reciprocal social security rights for British and Irish citizens after the UK leaves the EU, and the publishing of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2019 by the Irish government on 22 February 2019. We reviewed both of these steps in our first article in this series. 

This formalisation of the rights provided to British and Irish citizens under the CTA is welcome clarification for Irish businesses in their Brexit-planning for 2019. 

For further information, please contact one of our corporate immigration team members, Alicia Compton, Darran Brennan, Karen Hennessy or Richard Smith.

Contributed by Darran Brennan, Karen Hennessy and Richard Smith

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