Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr. Frans Timmermans and his colleagues to the joint meeting today.

On a light note, I hope we will not emulate Mr. Timmermans's political record of having to go through six elections in 11 years. We had an election 12 months ago and I hope we do not have one for a long time not to mind another five or four after that. I echo the comments of my esteemed colleague, Deputy Smith and to say it is a pleasure to welcome you and your colleague today to the special joint sitting of the committees on Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence and European Union Affairs. As my colleague has noted we live in challenging times for the European Union. My colleague detailed a number of the issues that the committee I chair is most interested in, in particular the upcoming negotiations with the UK on exiting the European Union and working out what the EU should look like without the UK in it. Of course, we must also consider how we as a national Parliament engage with the European Union through the scrutiny process and beyond. We are looking forward to engaging with Mr. Timmermans on these topics and we thank him for his very valuable time. We appreciate his being here and thank him.