UK, Ireland to sign deal on citizens' rights
Ireland and the UK were set on Wednesday to sign a deal formalising rights on the citizens of both countries under the common travel area (CTA) arrangement.
The non-binding memorandum of understanding will be signed by UK Cabinet Office minister David Lidington and Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney, ahead of a British-Irish intergovernmental conference in London later in the afternoon.
The conference was organised by the two governments after the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee by Irish republican terrorists. It will focus on how to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
The side deal is the result of two years of work to ensure the rights both have under the CTA agreement and under EU freedom of movement are protected after Brexit.
There are an estimated 300,000 Britons living in Ireland and about 350,000 Irish people in the UK.
The British and Irish governments had already stated that citizens who had settled in one another’s countries would be treated differently to other EU citizens, excluding the Irish from having to apply for “settled status” in the UK, which those from the rest of the EU are required to do.