Mr. Gerry Kiely:

On dealing with the social media platforms, I do not believe the Commission can ever be criticised for what the Commission has always wanted to do. I certainly would not go so far as to say that one of my Commissioners will not be brave enough. Ms Vestager has shown great bravery in dealing with these multinationals and no doubt she will continue to do so. It remains to be seen whether member states will follow. The Commission does not always get the support from member states that we feel we should get.

Senator Martin referred to the matter of disinformation. In the text of my full submission I mentioned that the EU has dealt with more than 300 disinformation narratives on Covid and we are very active in that area. We will continue to put pressure on social media platforms in all areas, and not just as far as Covid is concerned.

The Chairman asked if €5 billion is enough for Brexit. I am sure if it were €10 billion people would say it is not enough. It is what the heads of State have agreed; it is all there is available. It is a lot of money. The issue will be the share out, if and when. Whether it will be necessary will depend, to a large extent, on the outcome of the negotiations. In reality, whether it is enough or not, it is all that is available. It remains to be seen, but I would expect that given Ireland is more exposed by Brexit than any other member state, Ireland will get fairly favourable treatment under that fund.

On when the money will be available, it will not be available from the Multiannual Financial Framework, MFF, before January next year irrespective of when there is an agreement, but from the Next Generation it can be available as soon as there is an agreement. Money is already available, and I believe that Ireland has already tapped into it, although not from the Next Generation fund. There is a €100 billion fund called EU SURE, to deal with unemployment caused by Covid. That can be tapped into and I believe Ireland has already tapped into it. In the past six months the Commission has already emptied the drawers of all funds that were available and they were made available to all member states. Anything that could be done in funding was done. We cannot tap into anything until we have an agreement, which is why the Council and the Parliament need to get on with it and get an agreement as soon as possible. Once that agreement is there, things will move very fast because there is recognition that the money needs to get out there to help the economy and to help the people who are impacted.