Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. My understanding is that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has committed to making sure that we can match what is in place in other European countries. In the Netherlands, as I understand it, the turnaround time that is being committed to is four days. Currently, we anticipate that it will take ten days here so we will have to get that timeline down. I am in the middle of a conversation on that and we will work with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, who is aware of this issue, and his Department. It essentially means making sure we have enough vets to enable us to have faster turnaround times and we can do that. To use a term that is somewhat overused, there was an abundance of caution in terms of the timelines that were promised at the start but our food industry is far too big not to be competitive on something like this, where the State needs to facilitate a faster turnaround time.

On the Deputy's first question regarding the more fundamental issue of the relationship between the EU and the UK, there are serious trust issues when it comes to Brexit and the protocol, fuelled by the British Prime Minister's comments. He has spoken about the "ludicrous" trade provisions in the protocol and has said that some of the provisions are "absurd" but this is the deal that he signed up to and which his negotiators negotiated that he is now thrashing. That is politics, in terms of the language that is sometimes used. In return, the EU uses very legalistic and rigid language but that is driven by the experience of the British Government changing its approach in the autumn, openly admitting that it was going to break international law in a targeted and specific way. It also comes from the British decision at the start of March to essentially act unilaterally which, in the EU's view, is completely contrary to the obligations under the protocol. There is a real wariness in Brussels because of the unpredictability of the British Government's approach to some of these issues. I hope that, over time, the relationship between Lord Frost and Commission Vice-President Šefovi can address some of those trust issues. We are very lucky to have Maroš Šefovi in that role because I have found him to be extraordinarily interested and diligent on Irish issues. I have had many hours of discussions with him and he rings me after every significant meeting he has to make sure that he is not missing something from an Irish and EU perspective. We are very lucky to have him.

Equally, Lord Frost is somebody who is on top of the detail and has proven to be a trusted negotiator by the UK Prime Minister. It is really important that the two individuals that lead for both sides develop a relationship of trust. That relationship will need time to develop, given how it started, which was not good, but it is improving. I was in London two weeks ago and had a very good meeting with Lord Frost and worked through some of these issues in advance of him travelling to Brussels. Relationships are improving but there are still real issues with regard to trust. That would have been clear to anyone listening to the debate in the European Parliament today on whether it should ratify the trade and co-operation agreement, TCA. There is still a lot of soreness around the story of Brexit, its negotiation and the relationship between the two sides but I hope that will heal over time.

From an Irish perspective, we need the EU and the UK to be close partners in so many areas because if they are not, it puts Ireland in a very difficult space, as we found out repeatedly during the course of the Brexit negotiation process and as we are now finding out in the context of the implementation of the protocol. In my view, the protocol is the best way of limiting the disruption of Brexit on this island to the greatest extent possible but from a political perspective in Northern Ireland, it is very complicated. We will do everything we can to try to improve that relationship but there is an onus on the British Government, in particular, to do the same. There is also an onus on the EU, which has made mistakes, particularly with its threat to trigger Article 16, although it reversed engines very quickly on that mistake, within three or four hours. One does not see the EU acting unilaterally in the way that we have seen happen, unfortunately, on the other side. We need to focus less on blame and looking backwards and more on trying to find solutions, pragmatism and flexibility where possible, and on looking forward. We have an agreement now and we need to do what we can to make it work but both sides have got to own that agreement and not try to disown elements of it because they find them hard to sell.