Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate the Chairman's remarks of welcome to the Commissioner and his staff. As the Chairman said he gave it to us very straight and from the shoulder.

Given the shortfall of the order of €11 billion, and the collateral damage to Ireland, that will arise from the loss of Britain to the Union, if it happens, will the Commission be able to do with less? It will be down from 28 to 27 members. How will it make up the shortfall? What advice would the Commissioner give to Ireland? He said the arrangement between Ireland and Britain will be as important as that between Britain and the EU. Is he encouraging a bilateral deal in advance of Britain's invoking Article 50 in the hope that afterwards the Commission might give it its blessing? So much is bound up here, such as the Good Friday Agreement and the tie-in with European law; as the Commissioner suggested, we may need to get busy in that regard. I will be interested in his commentary on that.

A few days ago this committee and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement met the Brexit committee from the House of Lords. It was an informal meeting but they seemed to be very concerned with a case in the High Court in Britain, which they expect will go to the Supreme Court. I got the distinct impression that while their constitution is unwritten their lordships and the House of Lords would be very concerned with the supremacy of parliament. They seemed anxious to get into the debate in parliament following the outcome of any Supreme Court hearing. They seemed to think that the Prime Minister and British Government will not get their own way in the outcome of the case.

The Commissioner mentioned comprehensive economic and trade agreement, CETA. I agree that it was unfortunate the way the Seanad vote went. Our good friends in Fianna Fáil made a very strong speech in favour of it but abstained in the vote.