Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and good afternoon to both guests and members. I welcome our MEPs and I thank them for their contributions.

It is very reassuring, without being patronising in any way, that we have such a level of competence on the Irish team. As some of the guests have said and indeed all believe, it is important that we keep that active link between our Parliament and Europe not only in personal interactions on a regular basis but structurally as well, in looking at directives, regulations etc.

First, I detect in a number of speakers a great pessimism around the protocol and perhaps a small degree of optimism towards the end. I just hope that we can have an agreement on the protocol that will not prejudice our all-Ireland free trade arrangements or, in other words, will not return any sort of a Border. Can I ask our guests to comment again on whether they believe we can reach an outcome there and as to how this is progressing? One would like to think that despite the bellicose language etc., that it would.

On the Brexit adjustment fund, I got the initial impression that it was without labels but it seems that it is broken down to the sectors in which it must be spent. It would seem that a section of this must be spent on fisheries which nobody will object to, as such. I was thinking that the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, which will be coming into place might suggest then that the Brexit adjustment reserve could be spent in different areas and that there would be a need for level of national discretion on that.

Nobody referred to it directly but do the witnesses believe there is a hope that we can arrive at the veterinary agreement with Britain? The consensus seems to be that we will. This would have enormous implications for free trading and the for the non-intrusive movement of goods which would be important.

I was very disturbed to hear what my neighbour, Mr. Markey, had to say about products sourced on both sides of the Border and I ask that he might elaborate on that, please? That would have enormous implications for the village in which I live, in that there is a Lakelands Dairies facility there, which is the only substantial employer with the best quality jobs in the area, of which there are a few hundred up and downstream. We would be worried if there were difficulties with any of those jobs because Lakelands Dairies has plants on the Northern side and the milk flows in both directions. It would be very disturbing if anything was to go wrong there and Mr. Markey might elaborate on that point.

Is there a risk that were the protocol talks to break down fully and go badly, that might endanger the entire trade and co-operation agreement? Implicitly it would but could it take the whole deck of cards down and set us back a very long way? Where would the witnesses see us then at that point? Let us hope and pray that that does not happen.

Those are just some of the questions that occurred to me. I find this a very worthwhile engagement and we are going to continue this in the Seanad, as some of our guests and members will be aware already. Ms Walsh and Mr. Markey are already aware that we hope to have a full plenary Seanad session on 19 July with MEPs from the Midlands–North-West constituency and moving then to each of the other national constituencies, month by month or every few months. This should also be an exciting exchange and has great potential. I thank our guests for this opportunity. It is good to be here and I look forward to their responses later.