Ms Grace O'Sullivan:

It is a great honour to be in the European Parliament and to be speaking to our Oireachtas colleagues. I mention the first point Deputy Crowe raised about communications and the facilitation of same. This is it and this is the start of it. It is great the initiative has been taken for us to make an input to the committee and to share points of interests.

On the last point Deputy Crowe raised on Brexit, we had Mr. Barnier in last week to brief us in the Greens-European Free Alliance on the negotiations. The one thing I noticed in that briefing that I have also noticed more generally in the European Parliament is that every time the word "Brexit" is used, Ireland is mentioned. It is almost like they are glued together. Everyone recognises the greatest impact of Brexit, should it happen, will probably be on the island of Ireland and on the UK itself. Ireland is clearly front and centre in all talk about Brexit, and that is to be welcomed.

This morning at a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries, PECH, we had a Commissioner in to talk about the technicalities of access to EU waters by EU members should Brexit happen. Equally, the issue of British access to Irish waters was raised in terms of reciprocity so some kind of an agreement would be made. It was very clear from the language that was being used today at that meeting in terms of the fishers on both sides that there is still a sense, just five weeks out from a potential Brexit, that we are not really ready should the UK leave. For European nations, particularly the eight countries that use the UK waters, because nothing has really been finalised, there is still a great sense of uncertainty for the fishers. Inasmuch as some attempts have been made at trying to achieve some kind of agreement, it is difficult because the EU is finding it difficult to get engagement with the UK on this. Also, there is an issue with the habitual use by many fishers in Ireland of UK waters. What will happen? Will some kind of barrier go down on 31 October or on 1 November? There is a lack of security for fishing communities, processors and the industry in general. It is concerning. The members of the committee have all alluded to the fact there have been significant developments today, so we will see how it plays out in the UK.

I am also on the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, ENVI. I will go back to what Mick Wallace MEP said on this. Climate change is another area that is front and centre. To my mind, Brexit and climate change are probably the two areas that are most spoken about in the European Parliament since I have entered it. I will be very involved in all environmental issues, such as public health, food safety and the environment in general. I am a member of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Mercosur, DMER, as well, so we have to get going on that, but we have been watching closely what has been happening in Ireland in recent weeks with the negotiations between the Minister and the different farming organisations. I am also on the Delegation for relations with Palestine. That gives a sense of the work areas I have in my portfolio.

The new Commissioners-designate will come before us next week. I am the co-ordinator in PECH for the Greens-European Free Alliance, so I met Commissioner-designate Sinkeviius, who is from Lithuania. He seems quite competent but he will come before the Parliament to be questioned and scrutinised, as should be the case. Maybe that is an area where the members of the committee could contribute. If they had questions they thought we could ask on their behalf of the Commissioners-designate next week, that is something we could do.