Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Ó Cathasaigh on being appointed Vice Chairman of the committee. As I said earlier, I look forward to working with him and the rest of the committee.

To be fair, in this case we have had a good deal of toing and froing between the UK authorities and us in reaching this agreement. We have agreed the convention with the UK. These provisions are to ensure that we can operate the agreement, which we call the convention, regardless of what happens. In fairness to those responsible in the UK, they have been co-operative with us. I remember my predecessor, Senator Regina Doherty, saying that when our officials were working with their counterparts prior to getting the whole agreement together, they had been co-operative. They agreed the common travel area before any withdrawal agreement was in place and they were happy to come with this. I am satisfied that Irish citizens living in the UK should get all the payments to which they are entitled.