Ms Deirdre Clune:

I will make two points. On the points made about the agreement reached in December, I do not accept that there was a fudge. In fact, we, in the European Parliament, had our own resolution, of which the common travel area and the Good Friday Agreement formed parts, as well as the fact that there should be no border between the North and South. That was recognised by the European Parliament which will eventually agree to whatever arrangement is put in place between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. We take the issue seriously. I understand the European Commission and Mr. Barnier who is heading its delegation take very seriously the commitments given, to which the United Kingdom will be held. The groundwork has been done.

The groundwork will have to be acknowledged and be part of whatever agreement is reached. We spoke about the budget but did not deal with it enough. It will be very important. This debate will dominate our proceedings for the next few months as we decide where the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, from 2020 will go. Last week, Mario Draghi came to the Parliament. He said that in December 2016, he had predicted that the European economies would grow by 1.5% but in fact, they grew by 2.5% over 2017. We are in a positive period in which economies are growing across Europe. Our country is doing extremely well. The last time the MFF was put in place there was, unfortunately, a recession and that also should be borne in mind.