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Facundo Arrizabalaga PA Wire/PA Images

Theresa May to signal end of free movement for EU migrants when Article 50 is triggered

The rights of 3.6 million EU citizens already living in the UK will be protected, if British citizens abroad get the same guarantee.

UK PRIME MINISTER Theresa May is said to be poised to announce the end of free movement for new EU migrants when Article 50 triggers the Brexit negotiations next month.

She is expected to announce that EU citizens will no longer have the right to stay in the UK permanently at the same time that negotiations begin for Britain to leave the European Union.

The Telegraph reports that a cut-off date will be announced, where anyone from the EU who came to live and work in Britain before that date will have their rights protected as long as UK citizens living in Europe are granted the same assurances.

With no countries singled out, it is believed that this measure would apply to Ireland alongside all other EU member states, although this will be subject to negotiation during the Brexit talks.

Leading Eurosceptic MP Iain Duncan Smith said the expected announcement shows that Britain is taking back its borders, while giving clarity to the 3.6 million EU citizens already living in the country.

He said: “Theresa understands that if you want to take control you have to command the high ground. She will be giving clarity by setting a clear deadline while the European Union looks increasingly muddled and mean-spirited.”

Debate

Today, the Parliament’s House of Lords is set to scrutinise the bill allowing Britain to leave the EU, which made it through the House of Commons earlier this month.

Peers are set to discuss proposals including measures to guarantee the rights of EU nationals in Britain, and defining the parameters of a parliamentary  vote on the final Brexit deal.

The so-called “committee stage” is the first opportunity for peers to make amendments, which would then get debated and voted on before being passed back to the House of Commons for approval.

If the Lords approves the bill without amendments it will be sent,  after its final reading on 7 March, directly to Queen Elizabeth II to sign into law.

However, if there are amendments, the bill could bounce between the two houses as they try to agree on its final wording, potentially derailing May’s timetable.

Dick Newby, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the upper house, said there was strong support among peers for protecting the rights of EU citizens.

There is “an overwhelming desire to do the right thing and ensure that all EU nationals have the right to remain,” he was quoted as saying by the Guardian on Sunday.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Conservative peer Michael Heseltine, a former deputy prime minister, vowed to support opposition moves to secure a parliamentary vote on the Brexit deal within the bill.

May has urged the Lords to neither amend the bill nor delay it.

“There will be debate and scrutiny in the House of Lords, but I don’t want to see anybody holding up what the British people want… which is for us to deliver Brexit, to leave the European Union,” she said.

Irish reaction

Speaking on RTÉ’s The News at One, Minister for State for European Affairs Dara Murphy said that one of the key issues to be addressed over the next few months will be the rights of British citizens in Europe, and vice versa.

He said that it was important that the tone for discussions between the EU and the UK remain “moderate” and that the fears of people affected by the end of free movement are addressed.

“The free movement of people around Europe has been an excellent contributory factor to economies and in enriching societies,” he said.

Minister Murphy said that it would be impossible to immediately suspend free movement as soon as Article 50 is triggered, despite what has been suggested by May’s administration.

“The legal position is very clear,” he said, adding that the rights of EU citizens are guaranteed until after the conclusion of the Brexit negotiations.

He later said that when free movement does end between the UK and the EU is “subject to the negotiations” around Brexit.

The Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central said that maintaining the common travel area was a key priority, and that the government here was focusing on ensuring this remained in place.

“There is a strong understanding [in the EU] that we have unique circumstances,” he added.

With reporting from AFP - © AFP, 2017

Read: Nigel Farage ‘squeezed in at last second’ to dine with Donald Trump

Read: What can Fine Gael learn from previous heaves against long-serving party leaders?

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    Mute Michael Russell
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:57 PM

    Forgive my ignorance of science & biology , but genuine question: just because earth life forms produce methane…. Does it necessarily mean alien life forms do? Can we base the fundamentals of all possible life on what we have seen on earth? (Earth is a very small sample to use in the context of the universe!)

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:09 PM

    I don’t care what they do or don’t find tbh. They continuously blow my mind in what they achieve. They make me feel proud of men.

    44
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    Mute John Pepper
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:36 PM

    A tad sexist don’t you think?

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:57 PM

    No. I don’t think it’s sexist really as I’ve had an interest in space exploration for 30 years and I know the stories and names of many people involved from reading about it for years and they’re all men.

    I see your point though.

    29
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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:10 AM

    All men? Niall? Here’s a link for you:
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_astronauts
    Valentina Tereschkova? (Apologies for the spelling!)
    And the last several times I saw a launch there were a number of women in the control room, none of whom were handing round coffee or acting as secretaries!

    11
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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:23 AM

    I’m talking historically Mary. From landing on the moon to designing the rockets and shuttles – all the way back to the Wright sisters in fact :)

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    Mute Pádraig O'hEidhin
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    Sep 20th 2013, 7:23 AM

    Mary, a little lady like you would be best placed catering to your husbands needs, rather than commenting on mens issues like this.

    34
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    Mute AggressiveSecularist
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    Sep 20th 2013, 9:08 AM

    @Michael

    No it doesn’t. However, life as it is on earth is the only kind we have to go on. If you want to search for another kind of life you’ll first have to come up with a hypothesis of what form it would take and then what indicators that life would produce. Have fun with that!

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Sep 20th 2013, 11:58 AM

    No point arguing in troll’s Mary

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:00 PM

    Wouldn’t waste my breath on ‘em.

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    Mute John Pepper
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:16 PM

    Lol historically speaking that is.

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    Mute AggressiveSecularist
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:28 PM

    Good. Time to have a look at Europa and Titan!

    36
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    Mute Graham Kavanagh
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:53 PM

    The Martians are underground here waiting. Do you guys not watch good quality cinema???

    23
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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:11 PM

    Some great documentaries on YouTube bout that but you’ve probably seen them. On a proxy iPhone right now so I can’t link them. Mind blowing stuff.

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    Mute Chopstix
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:15 PM

    Some good documentaries about the structures and pyramids on mars in the area known as cydonia

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:23 PM

    And the face looking at you from Cydonia.

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    Mute Chopstix
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:29 PM

    Richard C Hoagland is the leading investigator on the face , pyramids mars in general dozens of interviews n lectures out there for those who find the topic interesting

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    Mute Brendan Harlowe
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:57 PM

    Yeah , the face disappeared on higher resolution images! Just a mountain after all!

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    Mute Chopstix
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:12 AM

    Killjoy ….

    4
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    Mute Graham Kavanagh
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    Sep 20th 2013, 2:51 AM

    Yeah they took the picture with the mons Olympus camera…

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    Mute AggressiveSecularist
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    Sep 20th 2013, 9:11 AM

    OMFG, we’ve regressed to the face on mars dumb-arsery.

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    Mute AggressiveSecularist
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    Sep 20th 2013, 9:18 AM

    you need to watch this…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T_jwq9ph8k

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    Mute AggressiveSecularist
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    Sep 20th 2013, 9:20 AM
    2
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    Mute Jack Mc Connoron
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:17 PM

    Bet the martians are saying the exact same thing about earth!

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    Mute Ronan Stokes
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:23 PM

    No, they are saying “that rover you bought on ebay is outside Ted”.

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:03 PM

    Yes but the real question is whether life existed on Mars in the past, not now. If it can be shown that life existed there a long time ago, it opens questions about the origin of life on this planet.

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    Mute Chopstix
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:32 PM

    I doubt the powers that be would tell us if they found proof of life

    14
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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:23 AM

    That’s the problem, they treat us like mushrooms.. keep us in the dark and feed us shite.

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    Mute Burch Barlow
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    Sep 20th 2013, 8:04 AM

    And fluoride!!!!

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Sep 20th 2013, 10:34 AM

    They’ve already come to the conclusion that it is possible Mars held life at one point. The problem is finding the concrete evidence is quite hard to achieve, especially when your only way of searching for the evidence is by firing probes in the direction of Mars and hoping they work if they get there.

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    Mute Barry Aston
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:15 PM

    Really! Bollix.

    16
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    Mute Sean Mac Gabhann
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:51 PM

    No point going back to paddy power then.

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    Mute Steve501
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:28 PM

    Interesting. Ur I bet there is life in a galaxy far far away.

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:13 PM

    With such a thin atmosphere, it’s no wonder that no methane was found. Any life that ever existed would’ve had to have come into being way back when Mars had an active core and magnetic field. Those days are long past, billions of years gone.

    Titan’s our best bet in this solar system.

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    Mute Ronan Stokes
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:32 PM

    Europa.

    12
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    Mute Mark O Flaherty
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    Sep 20th 2013, 3:32 AM

    Martians don’t fart…that’s what’s going on. A Dutch oven is impossible for them…..women of earth would love a Martian man

    8
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    Mute John king
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:05 PM

    Live on Mars already migrated long ago to a place we call China today ;-.) Not too long now and those aliens (we call them Chinese) soon will take over the world…

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:11 PM

    What?

    14
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    Mute Stephen McMahon
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:47 PM

    That’s not true, the Chinese are a great bunch of lads!

    21
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    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
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    Sep 19th 2013, 10:17 PM

    Obviously.

    4
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    Mute Virginia Black
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    Sep 20th 2013, 12:20 AM

    This is interesting. It’ll be a while still before it reaches Mount Sharp to calculate when life may have been possible. I remember reading about early astronomers who thought they saw canals on Mars’ surface but they were actually just scratches on their lenses they were looking at.

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Sep 19th 2013, 11:26 PM

    Mars looks at unhappy, maybe doesn’t like his photo being taken without permission..

    3
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