Mr. Barry Andrews:

It is sometimes said that at this stage of a meeting everything has been said, but not yet by everybody. I feel Ms Walsh's pain coming in, finally. I will recap the points. On Senator Gallagher's point regarding reports, we are now in the space where we have to think about recommendations so let me just be concrete about this. The committee has to take note of the fact that the proximity between Irish and British officials and ministers is gone. That proximity, which is crucial to developing peace on the island of Ireland, is all gone as a result of Brexit. Whitehall used to X-ray everything that came from the EU from a common law perspective. That is gone. In addition, the political alignment perspective between Ireland and the UK, whether we like it or not, is gone. The academic review in the UK of what is happening in the EU, whether it is textbooks, university departments, journals, symposiums and seminars, is gone. There is a new element, not isolation but a new relationship, we need to develop with both the EU and the UK now, separately. It should be part of the committee's analysis.

Senator Ó Donnghaile made a point about lack of representation. I wrote to the Commission about this. Under the proposed joint parliamentary assembly there needs to be a specific group where the Northern Ireland Assembly and MEPs have regular engagement. Failing that, it could be a carve-out of the UK delegation from the European Parliament where there would be connective tissue, as it has been described to me, between the Northern Ireland Assembly and the European Parliament. In addition, the joint consultative working group is under the specialised committee under the withdrawal agreement. There is no reason there should not be Northern Ireland academics, and civil society and other representatives, on that join consultative working group, which is supposed to meet once a month. One way or the other there has to be a dramatic upscaling in Northern Ireland of visibility of proposed legislation coming from Europe, particularly with that vote the Chair mentioned in a few years.

On the European health insurance card, as I understand it the UK is proposing to extend its global health insurance card to the three countries mentioned. We can double-check that. As Ms Walsh said, the digital Covid certificate, DCC, is intended to be interoperable between both the UK and the US but is caught up in the data adequacy issue. There is a little recognition around data adequacy and protection of EU citizens' data that is connected to that.

On Senator Lombard's point about strong recommendations, there has to be a strong recommendation from the committee on rules of origin and the flexibility being demonstrated by the European Commission, particularly on the issue of warehousing in Great Britain of supplies into the Republic of Ireland. The recommendation must also include the issue of Northern Ireland inputs into Republic of Ireland products and recognition of that in future free trade agreements. That is a really critical point we should not be shy to make if we are truly interested in protecting the all-island economy.

Finally, the Chair asked when the scrutiny committee issue will be settled. I agree with Mr. Markey that it has done much good work for us but I sincerely believe we need representation on this. It has been on the agenda of the conference of presidents, that is the group leaders, for the past three or four weeks, without agreement. There is something holding it up but I do not know what it is. That is where the real power will be.

There is a proposed interinstitutional agreement between the Parliament and the Commission. Normally, the European Parliament merely has the right to be informed about trade agreements under the treaties but this interinstitutional agreement will sit alongside that. It uses language such as it will give the utmost account of the European Parliament's opinion and it will scale up the European Parliament's input. This scrutiny committee will have a key role there. It really is crucial we have at least one Irish representative on it. I certainly put my hand up for it and I am sure others have done the same. The problem is I am a very new MEP and new MEPs really are at the bottom of the food chain. It has been a very interesting experience so I have no idea if I will make it onto that. I hope that answers the questions and I thank the Chair for the opportunity.