Mr. Maro? ?efovi:

I thank the Deputy for pointing out how sensitive this issue is, and I acknowledge that. I think I repeated myself several times and I can do it here. What happened in that week was that we had been under enormous pressure to ensure the European Union gets its fair share of vaccines. I will put it into perspective, and I ask the Deputy not to take me wrong here. When it came to the latest crisis triggered by Covid-19, within just a few months we adopted more than 1,000 legal acts. Therefore, it might happen that mistakes are committed in this way. This was the case also on that Friday.

In the draft which was presented where purely the vaccination element was covered, an administrative mistake was made. I want to make it 100% clear that this article was never activated. There was immediate communication between the Taoiseach, the President, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and me. I fully respect the committee's right to scrutiny and that it is doing its job. I understand that and therefore I am participating in this discussion and doing my best to explain to the committee the state of mind and how the decisions were taken on that date.

I also want to reaffirm once again, as I did on that occasion, that the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland remains unaffected by the European measures to ensure transparency of vaccine exports. These measures will never entail a hard border on the island of Ireland. In addition, this has been acknowledged several times today by me and by the President of the European Commission in the European Parliament and on multiple other occasions.

At this stage what is important is to ensure that we avoid anything like this happening in the future. Therefore, we are setting up the new mechanism within the Commission. I can absolutely promise the committee that we will respect fully all the elements linked with Article 16. I agree with the Deputy; we also hope that we would never trigger it. For that to happen, there are very precise ways how to do it, what the consultation time should be and how it should be discussed. Of course, Ireland will always be consulted on this issue especially if there are sensitivities concerning the Northern Ireland protocol.

If asked, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs would confirm that we have absolutely open channels of communication. Ireland's permanent representatives in Brussels are fully informed about what we do. We are working together to get out of the current situation and to ensure the protocol is properly implemented.

Speaking of scrutiny, I will be very happy to meet the committee again at a time it finds convenient to outline how we have learned from the mistakes, how we are implementing the protocol and how we are dealing with many challenges. The change is fundamental. The transition that is needed is massive and the number of issues for which we need to look for solutions is enormous. It is a also a matter of having a standing relationship between the Irish Parliament, the Commission and me. I would also be very happy to facilitate interaction with the Commissioners who are leading on certain files and areas that are important to the implementation of the trade and co-operation agreement. I would very much like to underscore our willingness to have permanent engagement, to ensure we understand each other well, and to have the lines of communication always open in order to discuss any matter the Irish Parliament or the Irish feel is important.