Ms Deirdre Clune:

I thank the committee for facilitating this meeting. Brexit is consuming Parliament. In terms of the March session, we are currently working on a resolution on what the future arrangement could or should be with the UK but we are operating in a vacuum because as everybody knows the UK does not know what it wants. I know that the committee has held numerous hearings on the likely impacts of Brexit. At the same time, the future of Europe is very much part of the debate in the Parliament. Only last week the Prime Minister of Croatia was in Parliament outlining Croatia's position and the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, was also there outlining issues relating to Ireland' s position. The budget is dominating procedures today. An announcement was made earlier today by the Commission on how the future budget of the European Union could be structured. When the UK leaves Europe, there will be a gap in funding of approximately €12 billion. How this gap is to be filled needs to be addressed.

Is it going to be filled or is it going to be addressed by increased contributions from member states or is it going to be a combination of budgetary cuts and contributions from member states, or is it going to be completely left as a gap and the programmes cut? This is going to be a matter for member states. We certainly do not want to see a cut in programmes, especially those such as the CAP, but there is a lot of pressure to increase funding for security. We are all very much aware of the security issue and the challenge is there with the fight against terrorism and ensuring that borders are protected, that information is shared among member states and that citizens are protected. This is a challenge, along with the challenge of migration. While we do not hear as much about the migration challenge in Ireland, dealing with migration is a real challenge for our southern European neighbours as is the contribution to Turkey and dealing with migrants there. These are pressures on the budget. The CAP is very important to Ireland but nonetheless the contribution has decreased to just under 40% or 38% from a level of more than 70% many years ago. These are the challenges facing us. I am aware that the budget will be on the agenda of the EU Council on 23 February, so I am sure we will hear about whether it will increase. Ireland is now a net contributor but we gain substantially in our contribution under the CAP.

I will now give the committee a sense of my own work with the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism, TRAN. We are very conscious, obviously, of the impact of Brexit on transport issues. Next week there will be a hearing on what Brexit will mean for maritime issues and if we should be developing our short sea shipping routes. We have already had a hearing on road transport and the implications for European consumers and for Ireland; how are we going to get across the UK and what that means if the EU has invested in road projects across the UK, how does the investment continue and how do we benefit Ireland. Ireland does a lot of trade with the UK but we also do a substantial amount with the EU mainland. The fastest way to the Continent is across the UK and through its very busy Dover-Calais route, which is the shortest and most efficient route. Where do we stand on that? There is particular concern around aviation because the UK is so close to Ireland geographically. If there is a cliff edge scenario and if the UK leaves the European Union without an aviation agreement in place we are in trouble because there is no alternative arrangement to fall back to without an European aviation agreement. There is nothing in the World Trade Organization, WTO, guidelines that would facilitate that. We really would need some form of arrangement in place to facilitate aviation because European airspace is supervised by the European Air Safety Agency and every EU country abides by its rules, regulations and supervision. If the UK is no longer part of the European Union, then there will be a problem for those who cross UK airspace. These are the kinds of issues that the TRAN committee focuses on. We are moving forward now we are into the second phase of negotiations in terms of what will the future arrangements be and focusing on the real difficult issues relating to transport. This gives the members a sense of the work we do.

The European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, EMPL, is also looking at the issues. I am aware other contributors want to speak but I am happy to discuss this and to elaborate on my work in that area for the members.