Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of observations to make. Mr. Aiken made an interesting point that we are not that important in this debate from the UK's point of view. In fact, giving us some of the historic preferential new tariffs, or no tariffs at all, might be against the interests of regional Britain.

In terms of rational expectations, the witnesses all seem to be agreed that there will be some form of referendum in the UK at some point, whether in 2017 or thereabouts. At what point does it become a self-fulfilling prophecy, one way or the other? In that sense, businesses will start to anticipate an outcome at some stage, particularly concerning foreign direct investment, inward investment and British firms' decisions to relocate some of their activities outside the UK. What impact might that have?

Professor Matthews made an interesting point on standards in the agricultural sector. He said it would be in Britain's interests to keep its standards uniform with the rest of Europe. Does that transpose across to other aspects of the economy? One of the things to fear is that Britain gets all the benefits of leaving with none of the costs other European countries have arising from social or regulatory standards. To what extent does Professor Matthews think that is possible, or will the balance be more in favour of Britain retaining the standards of the rest of the EU countries?

If the various measures currently being taken in Europe prove to be successful in reflating the European economy - for example, quantitative easing and the Juncker plan - to what extent does Professor Matthews think a European recovery could make a difference to the outcome? How much of a factor is a European recovery? There seems to be a view in Britain which says they have done very well outside the eurozone, the strategies they have followed have proven to be the correct ones and they do not need Europe. If Europe was to start turning the corner, however, would that have an influence on matters?

The UK is the EU's single biggest market. Professor Matthews might correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that the UK imports more from the entire EU than it exports. In other words, it is a net importer of all EU goods. How important is that as a factor in the negotiations for other EU countries in trying to influence the UK's outcome? As regards the negotiations, how much are other EU countries willing to concede?