Professor Gavin Barrett:

I cannot address all the questions in the time remaining to me, unfortunately. I would like to focus on the question concerning the European Convention on Human Rights. It is very clear from the text of the Good Friday Agreement that it was assumed that Britain would remain a member of the European Convention on Human Rights. That point was conveyed in no uncertain terms by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, to the Government of the United Kingdom. It is important to remember that the European Convention on Human Rights is separate from the EU, so withdrawal from the EU does not bring with it a withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, although Theresa May has spoken about withdrawal from that as well. She seems to have a thing about that.

Deputy Barrett raised the important issue of negotiating separately or together. It brings to mind Winston Churchill's old saying, that, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately." Clearly, we have a far greater economic interest in this whole process than many of our fellow member states of the EU. In so far as it concerns the common travel area, the Good Friday Agreement etc., what we have been talking about is safeguarding the package that is already there, and we negotiated that package for ourselves. Those were more or less directly negotiated.

In terms of trade, which is the other aspect of this which is of key economic importance to us, are we better having a separate argument or a joint argument? The logic for having a separate argument is one for Irexit. No one is arguing for that, but that is ultimately where that logic takes us. The gain of individual negotiations is that we gain an independent voice. The loss is a huge loss of bargaining power. Professor John FitzGerald stated that the smaller party to international negotiations approaches them as the beggar. That is the way it works and that is the position we were in with Britain prior to our membership of the communities. Ironically that is the position the British are going to be in during the negotiations with the 27 member states. The benefits of being in the EU include the benefit of huge bargaining power, and that is reflected in the draft of Council guidelines and the draft mandate. As long as our views are taken account of within the greater organisation, I have no doubt that we are better off in it. So far, Ireland has succeeded spectacularly in doing that, and it is to be hoped that will continue to be the case. I take the point about other member states not even being aware of the circumstances here, but the people who matter are aware, and I suspect we will see that reflected in what Michel Barnier has to say to us today. It should be remembered that the negotiations are going to be conducted by the Commission, subject of course to the supervision of the member states and Council.

Deputy McLoughlin clearly represents a constituency that has many people living along the Border who are most sensitive to Brexit, including those involved in the tourism and haulage industries. He asked about the impact on farmers. I see it impacting on farmers in several ways. One is on the CAP, because the British withdrawal of funding is going to hit farmers throughout this island, make no mistake about it. Those who will be hit hardest are the farmers in Northern Ireland. They are looking at the end of the CAP as there are no guarantees past 2020. Joint exports are another area that will be effected, particularly exports into the UK. If they pursue a cheap food policy, it will really hit Irish exporters, and perhaps increase competition on third country markets as well, depending on what kind of deals the British can negotiate for themselves.

Unfortunately the impact of Brexit is not going to be even. There is no doubt it will hit some sectors more than others, especially the food industry and farmers. I would love to look at the common security and defence policy but time does not permit. Perhaps if I am back before the committee at a later date I can speak about that.