Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from where Senator Byrne finished off. He has a much more in-depth knowledge of these issues than I do but I hope the questions I ask will be of use to us in compiling our report and of use to others because many of those who are listening or watching online would like to ask the same questions since they are fairly fundamental. I join the Chairperson and Senator Byrne in thanking both of our witnesses for being here and for their presentations. Could they please go back to the matter of the adequacy decision and its adoption? In their response, will they explain the process of its adoption? Must it now be adopted by EU member states or by the European Commission? If we judge it to be acceptable, will everything automatically be fine or is the UK to have an input? In responding to Senator Byrne, Mr. O'Dwyer said that the EU had approved a very sophisticated and advanced system in respect of the GDPR, which should help. Will the witnesses explain the process by which the decision is to be adopted?

How will that process work practically? Is there anything our Government could do then to increase the chances of the adequacy agreement being accepted, that we as a committee could recommend in our report? It would be a great outcome for the decision to be accepted. Is there anything our Government is not doing now, for example, such as diplomatic activity which could be stepped up a level to ensure a positive outcome? The Government and the country in general are good at diplomacy and we have proved that right through this Brexit process. I would like Mr. O'Dwyer to comment on those aspects.

The questions raised by Senator Byrne stand as well of course. I refer especially to his query regarding a doomsday scenario whereby the adequacy decision is not accepted and the associated costs if that were to happen. Mr. O'Dwyer's answer was that those costs would be very high. The processes in that regard are interesting too. However, the members of the committee, as well as anyone watching, would be interested to see if we could solve this potential problem at source. I would like an answer on that aspect.

Forgive me if a good bit of this information has been given already, but I certainly missed it. I hope my queries reflect those of others who also may have missed this information. I thank the witnesses.