Mr. Seán Kelly:

I thank the Chairman and members for this opportunity. I will be brief. I am a member the Committee on Industry, Trade, Research and Energy, INTE and the Committee on International Trade, INTA.

On trade, as the committee will be aware the outgoing Commissioner for Agriculture, Commissioner Hogan, is now the Commissioner-designate for trade. His hearing will take place here in Brussels next Monday at 6 p.m. in respect of which we do not envisage any problems. Based on the meetings I have attended thus far, Parliament has up to nine Commissioner-designates in its sight. One or two may be dropped, or to use the unfortunate word used here, "killed", but Commissioner Hogan will not be one of them. He will get through with flying colours and he will do a very good job.

On data, earlier this morning Ms Frances Fitzgerald and I had a meeting with Facebook on issues such as fake news and how to control it, etc. I also attended another meeting with representatives of the biopharma industry in Ireland who are concerned about Brexit and industrial policy here and the IT climate, which is an area in which I have been involved for the past five years. The areas on which I will be concentrating over the next few years are climate, industry, trade and agriculture.

Senator Craughwell asked whether Boris Johnson is likely to resign as a result of today's decision. As we would say in Kerry, he will like hell, not a hope of it. He is likely to come up with some other concoction. There is no point going into too much detail on that issue. We will just have to let it run its course.

On Brexit and Deputy Haughey's question regarding whether, if an extension was requested, it would be granted, I believe it would. It is encouraging that last Wednesday in Parliament, we voted on the European Parliament's resolution on the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union, which provided for the granting of an extension, if required, and the result was 544 for and 126 against. This is an indication that if there is a crash out, the European Union will not be to blame for it.

As has been said, a meeting has been organised for tomorrow morning by Naomi Long, at which all Irish MEPs, North and South, will, hopefully, be in attendance, to discuss Brexit and its consequences. Ms Long will be able to elaborate further on that meeting. There is cross-party support here on Brexit, with not only MEPs from Ireland but from across Europe wearing the green vest on this issue. We have held the line and this will be a further indication in that regard. I will leave it at that because I also have to attend the INTA committee, which has already commenced.