Mr. Barry Andrews:

The Deputy's comments on John Hume are very well received. In fact, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, quoted extensively from John Hume in her state of the Union address in September. He continues to be a very influential person. Billy Kelleher and I, on Mr. Kelleher's initiative, are seeking to name one of the buildings in the European Parliament after John Hume. I am not sure how that is going but it is something we can continue to pursue.

As regards the non-Irish MEPs, they are very interested in all these issues because they have an impact but the further east and south one goes, the less interest there is. It is not a first-tier issue any more; there is no doubt about that. However, there are serious concerns around data adequacy and financial services among non-Irish MEPs.

Deputy Calleary referred to fisheries. The French Government is very exercised about this and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, made the point to this committee last week that this was a suboptimal outcome for Irish fisheries. That is accepted and hopefully the Brexit adjustment reserve can go some way to mitigating the damage that has been done to the Irish fishing fleet. The protocol has dominated the relationship between the EU and the UK in the first few months. There have been little skirmishes around recognition of the EU ambassador in London, for example, and obviously the Article 16 situation did not help things. There are many more issues to be resolved now between the EU and the UK that go beyond the protocol. We have mentioned that security and defence issues must be resolved. The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, COP26, is coming up and the UK will look to the EU for solidarity around developing outcomes from COP26. The same can be said of the G20. The Johnson Government will look to move on beyond the protocol, which might explain the better atmosphere in the exchanges between David Frost and Maros Šefovi since their first informal meeting in April. I mentioned 27 issues and that is just with the protocol. There are many other issues regarding the trade and co-operation agreement that we are seeking to resolve. The very specialised committees under the trade and co-operation agreement are open to all member states. Ireland will attend all of those committees but lots of other member states will attend those specialised committees as well.

Regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe, as Monsieur Barnier said, it has forced people to think about these things. Whenever there is a crisis in Europe, it is an existential one. Nobody ever has a conference on the future of Ireland. The very idea that a state is somehow contingent on the way it manages to deal with crises as they come up is a slightly negative narrative. We need to focus on outcomes and making sure we can create the circumstances for job creation, viability of businesses, prosperity and growth in our economies. That is what citizens want. They do not want to hear about inter-institutional agreements or the balance of power between the institutions. None of that is of any concern to them. It is going to be very hard to get traction on a public consultation on this. There is a website where anybody can contribute their views on the future of Europe, there will be a launch next Sunday and the Irish Government will carry out public consultations. However, in the Institute of International and European Affairs we did a public consultation on the future of Europe - I believe Senator Chambers and Deputy Richmond were involved - and it was difficult to get public engagement. In the context of what is happening now and what people's real priorities are, it will be difficult to get engagement but that remains to be seen. It will be based on the political will and effort put in by the member states.