Mr. Colm McCarthy:

Senator Leyden made a reasonable point, which I omitted to mention, namely, if Britain left the EU and we remained in it there might be some opportunities. He made the point that we would then be the only English-speaking country left in the EU. The others are catching up very quickly and English has become the business language not only of Europe but of the world. It is worth thinking about whether in the event that Britain did leave, that would throw up some positive possibilities.

Deputy Crowe wondered if the British left would we be able to negotiate a separate free trade type of arrangement. The fast answer is "No" because the EU is a single negotiating body for commercial policy. Economists use the phrase "commercial policy" to describe anything to do with tariffs or quotas and so on. The commercial policy of each member state of the EU is no more. It is all done at Community level. The divorce settlement would include the terms of trade access for Britain to the EU markets and vice versa. Our position I guess would just fall out as a by-product of that. It is not open to an individual country such as Ireland to have a trade agreement with somebody. Ireland cannot negotiate tariffs or quotas with Bolivia or Mongolia or anywhere like that. That is all done at EU level.