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

Yes, and one of the points President von der Leyen made in the European Parliament today was that if the TCA is ratified the EU has tools to respond if the UK breaks the deal. There are tools built into the TCA such as dispute resolution mechanisms and arbitration, or we could respond by applying tariffs on certain products, for example, if it is appropriate to do so. Having the TCA ratified will hopefully provide a positive platform for engagement on partnership but it also has teeth as regards retaliation, if that is necessary, but hopefully it will not be. There will be a lot of monitoring of all these sectors for compliance with what has been agreed on the TCA as well. Of course, there is also a cross-linkage between the implementation of the TCA and some of the retaliation mechanisms within it that could also be linked to non-implementation of the withdrawal agreement or protocol. Again, I certainly do not think we should be talking about threats-----