Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is good to talk to the Commission Vice-President again. There is an absolute understanding and an enormous appreciation of the solidarity the member states of the European Union have shown to Ireland during the Brexit negotiations. That is absolutely understood. It underscored the degree of shock that happened, politically, when it was announced late on a Friday evening that Article 16 of the Northern Ireland treaty was to be enacted. That really sent shockwaves. Unfortunately, the harm done continues. It was not a single event and I know that is appreciated.

Forgive me for going back to trying to understand the process. In his presentation, Commissioner Šefovi said mistakes were made in the process leading up to the decision. We are trying to understand what mistakes were made. Commissioner Šefovi went on to say that it was undone when political level awareness happened. How can such a fundamental issue happen without political awareness? Who made the decision and who signed off on it, politically? We need to understand, so that the processes of decision making will improve into the future.

I refer to the clearing house mechanism Commissioner Šefovi. Who constitutes that clearing house? Where is it? How will it be put into operation, in reference to member states and Commission members? How will that work?

I refer to the Commissioner's ongoing dialogue with Michael Gove. He rightly talked about the future because the protocol is a settlement that will not be removed. We need to work out the detail of its implementation. Commissioner Šefovi mentioned real-time access to UK customs being an outstanding UK action. What other UK actions in the protocol are yet to be implemented? What technical issues has Commissioner Šefovi discussed with Michael Gove that can be sorted? Is it in Commissioner Šefovi's mind to have a further derogation in the timelines for the full implementation of the protocol?

I wish to expand on Deputy Richmond's question on how we achieve ongoing dialogue. We have been grappling with the UK leaving the European Union and how we can have much closer political interaction. One of the processes is the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I do not know if Commissioner Šefovi is aware of it. It may be useful for Commissioner Šefovi or the Commission to present to the economic committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly the benefits to Northern Ireland of being part of the Single Market and the United Kingdom's internal market.