Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The EU negotiator will seek to represent all 27 member states and will not go to these agreements seeking hand trips. People on both sides are going in good faith and see this as an opportunity for growth. While there are sensitive sectors on both sides that they will defend to the best of their abilities - it comes down to negotiation - I do not see it as setting up a series of potential land mines further down the road. Although neither side is going into these negotiations seeking to impede trade over time, they have real sensitivities they are seeking to protect which will be openly addressed in the agreement. In the Canadian agreement there were very intense negotiations about the quantity of certain goods that would be allowed in. Some things will be easy, for example, tariffs are not a major issue and people are generally sympathetic to dropping them to zero. Some of the regulatory areas will be more tricky and that is why the negotiations will not be straightforward. For example, Japan has traditionally had major non-trade barriers, and that agreement has been one of the most difficult in terms of identifying the sort of changes necessary.