The four-page document, signed and published yesterday afternoon ahead of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIGC), states that the CTA and “associated reciprocal rights and privileges” are “separate from, and therefore not dependent on, EU citizenship or EU membership”.

It continues: “In the context of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and recognising the strong and enduring people to people ties, and long tradition of migration between the UK and Ireland, the Participants consider it desirable to provide a contemporary articulation of these longstanding CTA arrangements, and to reaffirm that such arrangements are to continue.”

The memorandum states that the governments will take “any necessary steps” to give effect to the CTA and associated reciprocal rights and privileges, including “any necessary legislative steps and further, more detailed, bilateral agreements that may be entered into now or in future to give effect to specific aspects of the CTA arrangements”.

The governments will also establish “a group of senior officials from both jurisdictions” which will meet at least every year to provide oversight.

The memorandum was signed by Cabinet Office minister David Lidington and Tanáiste Simon Coveney in London.