Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a hugely changed political situation in Northern Ireland, and we see from opinion polling that it is changing all the time. There are many nuances of opinion; it is not one side versus the other. I think we can all agree now that there are significant nuances and a broad range of the public there who want to live decent lives, have prosperity and be able to move around the place. The Irish Government will try to ensure the best opportunity for the North. When these issues are solved, and work is ongoing to solve them, Northern Ireland will have a huge opportunity to be part of the Single Market of the European Union. If one's perspective is on the unionist side, Northern Ireland is part of the customs territory of Britain as well. There are therefore huge opportunities there for the economy, and it is up to all of us, but particularly leaders in Northern Ireland, to help drive that forward and to make sure those opportunities are seized.

I cannot get into what questions officials or others have asked many times. The Commission as a body signed off on the measure which included Article 16 and political responsibility rests with the Commission. Ursula von der Leyen has accepted that and there will be accountability to the European Parliament. I accept that there is a point in trying to find out who did what to make sure that we have the right people there, that this cannot happen again and that somebody knows about the situation. When I think of our system, however, which is slightly analogous, if a government were to make such a mistake, that government and its Ministers, not individual officials, would be accountable to the Dáil. The reality is that this was drawn up. Commissioners, who are in regular contact with their counterparts here and indeed with the British Government, did not see fit to take out this provision or to say to themselves, as I did and, as I am sure, all committee members did when we first saw this on social media at about 4.30 p.m. that Friday, "What the - ?" I could not believe it. I would like to think Commissioners would think in that same political way that this is something that just should not have happened. That did not happen and, ultimately, there has to be political responsibility. I know the European Parliament will do its job in that regard, but the lessons are very important too.

I will repeat this. The protocol is there. It will not go away. Nobody has the possibility to remove it. There is no possibility of negating elements of the protocol either. There is the possibility of all of us working together to make sure it works in the most flexible way possible, consistent with everybody's demands that there be no hard border on the island of Ireland. This is really important for the economies north and south of the Border, and we cannot lose sight of this when we talk about checks and customs. It is really important that Ireland protects its place in the Single Market and that no questions are asked about that. It is absolutely central and essential to our economic policy and our economic growth into the future. That is very important, and I think everybody recognises that, but sometimes when we talk about difficulties and inconveniences we can perhaps put to one side the fact that the Single Market is so important and so central to us. The invocation of Article 16 has already happened, almost, and we see the fallout from that, so I think it is very unlikely that that will happen again. The point is that nobody can invoke Article 16 to eliminate the protocol or to change its terms. The protocol remains and always will remain, and there are ways of making sure we all work together to work it as effectively and efficiently as possible.