H.E. Ms Deike Potzel:

I will try to be quick. I thank the committee members for their questions. I was asked about the broad support for the traffic light system. It is very much in the interests of our citizens that they have clarity on how, where and when they can travel. Much of the insecurity that we observe arises from changing targets and it is important that we have an agreement. There is broad support within the population in Germany. I do not have poll numbers to reflect that but I think there is broad support for this clarity that gives people something to work with. We get asked what is going on every day at the embassy. That is important.

I will send back the recommendation on free travel for senior citizens. There are obviously discount measures in all countries but I will definitely send back the Senator's suggestion.

I thank Deputy Haughey for his warm words about Chancellor Merkel. He asked about migration and the domestic opinion in Germany. One has to say that it is a mixed picture. At the beginning, the Chancellor decided to keep the borders open and it is important to stress that.

A lot of people say the Chancellor opened the borders but she really kept them open. She would have had to make a decision to close them but she left them open and that was definitely a humanitarian decision. People on many points of the political spectrum supported that decision but in the aftermath we have seen that the influx of almost 1 million refugees also led to a strengthening of right-leaning parties in Germany too. Overall however, five years on from the decision and the 2015 refugee crisis, the feeling in Germany is that it worked out well and that integration of foreigners and refugees - which we still have to improve - worked well. I think it is reported in today's edition of The Irish Times that for the first time ever, the population of Germany is shrinking and we realise we do actually need immigration as a country.

As such, it is a mixed picture. Some people would not be very much in agreement with the way the German Government handled it and they are worried about certain aspects of it but if one looks at opinion polls, the majority of people would say we did well and that we also profit from immigration. Obviously, however, in view of the migration policy and asylum policy we are trying to put in place in European countries, we have to make efforts to deal with illegal immigration and to look into how to react to people who do not have a reason for getting asylum, for instance. We definitely need to look at these issues. All in all, however, I think the opinion is, as I said, pretty positive on that back home.

In a quick word on Brexit, we keep saying we expect the British Government to fully respect the obligations in the withdrawal agreement and we will keep saying that. Obviously the protection of the Single Market is paramount and Ireland has said that time and again as well. I think we are all in the same boat on this. The Chancellor has also said more than once that it is not an Irish problem but a European one.As such we will keep telling the Brits to stick to the withdrawal agreement and of course the Northern Ireland protocol. If we do not succeed in getting a deal and it ends up in a no-deal scenario, we will still keep pushing them to implement what they have signed up for. That is as much as I can say on that at the moment.

On protection of citizens, if I got that question correctly, looking at the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, and especially the recovery fund, I think most of the targets there are aimed at helping our citizens to get through this pandemic and to overcome the repercussions due to the pandemic. While it might not always be spelled out, it is definitely there. In addition, one of our priorities that I have not mentioned yet was a social Europe and the protection of our citizens, our youngsters and youth, which is very important. We feel that also requires a strong, co-ordinated European response but that is definitely also something we want. We want to strengthen the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, for instance, within the EU framework for national minimum wages or minimum security schemes. We intend to evaluate the proposal for a European unemployment reinsurance scheme. It was announced by the European Commission and is very important to us.

We are also committed to strengthening the Youth Guarantee and tackling youth unemployment. Perhaps these are not among the headlines, given what is going on at present, but they are important parts of our work.