Mr. Ciarán Cuffe:

Like Mr. Andrews, I am really happy to be with the committee today. I am speaking from Strasbourg. It is a plenary week so it is a busy time and a lot of debates and voting are going on. One of the issues that has become abundantly clear to me over the last two years, for which I have had the honour of being an MEP, is that the big issues of our time do not recognise national boundaries. Issues such as globalisation, immigration, Covid and the climate crisis transcend national boundaries and demand regional co-operation and co-ordination. We have certainly seen that with Covid over the past 18 months. The voice of history will show that we need to co-ordinate in much greater detail than we have heretofore. Brexit goes against the tide of the major movements of our time.

The Chair has seen my written statement but I will summarise a couple of issues I raised within it. Mr. Andrews has already spoken about the Brexit adjustment reserve. Within the committees of the European Parliament, we have been putting on the green jersey to ensure that Ireland receives the funding it deserves. I am pleased that approximately €1 billion of the €5 billion fund will come to Ireland. There were certainly many voices from the other 26 member states arguing that they should benefit from the Brexit adjustment reserve. My eyebrow certainly raised over some of the demands other countries made in that regard. A great deal of the money will go to fisheries. My colleague, Grace O'Sullivan, has argued for stronger support for the small-scale, sustainable fishers of Ireland.

In some of the committees on which I sit, including the Parliament's energy committee, significant impacts from Brexit are already being seen. For instance, we have an electricity interconnector with the UK. This is not operating as well as it was before Brexit. That results in higher prices for electricity both for people in the UK and for people in Ireland. That is a very practical consequence of Brexit.

Back in April, I voted for the trade and co-operation agreement, TCA. I am pleased that went through the Parliament but it is worrying to hear the constant statements from London to the effect that the Northern Ireland protocol is not sustainable and not fit for purpose. I think about some of the announcements we have seen made without consultation. The surprise extension until October of arrangements with regard to pets travelling between Northern Ireland and the UK seems like a small thing, but there was no consultation on this as far as we know. We have seen quite a bit of grandstanding, which only exacerbates the existing sensitivities that have arisen from efforts to balance the Good Friday Agreement with Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol. Perhaps a little less ideology and a little more co-ordination from the UK Government would be helpful.

I note that Edwin Poots, the new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, visited Dublin last week. That was encouraging but I would remind him that, regardless of Brexit, we live on a shared island and that the future lies in regional co-operation and not in the continuation of extreme grandstanding. Brexit and the future relationship between the UK and Ireland will disproportionately affect the people, and particularly the young people, of Northern Ireland. Their voices must be heard in all of this. We have seen the generous support the Irish Government is giving to allow the Erasmus programme to continue without interruption to allow young people who are studying and training to continue to travel and to extend these links between Ireland and other regions around Europe. Travel broadens the mind. The more we open up our borders and extend the hand of friendship and of trade to all European countries, the better placed we will be. I will leave it at that.