Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Callinan and his colleagues from four Departments and Mr. Irwin from Revenue. I will ask a few questions of Mr. Callinan, one of which is related to the issue raised by the Chairman, namely, trade. Mr. Barnier reiterated the approach of the EU last week, namely, that the priorities in the first phase for the EU relate to border issues, citizens' rights and the financial settlement, in other words, the terms of the exit, and it is only after the terms of the exit are agreed that the EU will engage on the question of the future and the future trading relationship between the UK and the European Union. Could I ask the Irish perspective on that? Given that there is a real risk that the negotiations will simply run out of time, and if the ECJ finding today does have relevance in relation to any transitional arrangement, for example, any future trade deal between the EU and the UK, and it has to be ratified by every single national parliament and regional parliament within the European Union, how concerned is Mr. Callinan that we will not be able to avoid the cliff effect of the UK falling out of the European Union and no transitional arrangements being in place to prevent the automatic default of WTO trade terms?