Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two follow-up questions for Mr. Andrews. The first, which is to some extent the elephant in the room, is the fact that the trade and co-operation agreement has no scope in the area of financial services. There is much more discussion to be had in this area. There is an acutely difficult path ahead for Ireland, especially for Dublin where Mr. Andrews and I are from, and the impact on the financial services industry here. Our industry very much complements the City of London, as opposed to possible competition from other large European Union member states and cities. Will Mr. Andrews give his view on what discussions need to happen, or are happening, and how they should go with regard to equivalence, clearing or any of those areas?

I was taken by a speech Mr. Andrews made in plenary session - I believe it was before Christmas - in which he referred to keeping an empty chair in the European Parliament and how the former MEP, Otto von Habsburg, had spoken about how this represented the central and eastern European countries that had been left behind. We were all thrilled at the weekend to mark the anniversary of the accession of those states. Mr. Andrews made that point in the context of the UK leaving the EU and possibly returning. Deputy Ó Murchú and Mr. Andrews, in their back and forth, referred to the possibility of Northern Ireland coming back into the EU as part of a united Ireland, as is allowed for under the European Council decision of 2016, and an independent Scotland returning to the EU. The empty chair, for which Mr. Andrews made the case, is a salient and emotive image but it is also very true. The return of the UK to the EU should be an aspiration. Ireland has a duty within the EU to always keep this prospect alive or, as our friends across the water like to say, to keep the light on. To do that, a lot would have to change in the UK. Is it possible to realise that prospect in the next decade or two? Is there a level of sourness in other member states that we cannot get past at this stage? More importantly and more realistically, over the next five to ten years, how can we chart out a process that keeps the UK-EU relationship closer than perhaps envisioned in this trade and co-operation agreement? How can we maintain that relationship and what part can member state parliamentarians and MEPs play in that?