Ms Mairead McGuinness:

I thank the Senator for that endorsement and for his good wishes. While I live in the constituency of Meath East, I am actually a constituent in Cavan-Monaghan so the Senator and I have a shared territory.

I will turn to the points the Senator has made. Brexit is divisive and I have referred to its fragmenting effect. When the EU comprised 28 members, none of these problems arose. Five years later, we are seeing that Brexit was not easy at all. It is still quite a political story in the United Kingdom. From the EU side, we have, in a sense, moved on. We are trying to say that we need to implement what has been agreed and let us get on with our business. We have a public health crisis, issues that will arise from the recovery, unemployment and all sorts of things with which we need to deal collectively with the United Kingdom. I agree that the divisiveness does not help but I want to absolutely stress that while there is some bewilderment, to put it mildly, about how the UK is approaching these discussions, we are continuing to talk. It was interesting that Lord Frost made the point that there was no breakthrough in talks but there was no breakdown. Perhaps that is progress, in a nutshell.

The protocol is crucial because I shudder to think what the implications would be if there were nothing place. Perhaps some who are concerned about the protocol do not realise that they need to compare the protocol to the situation that would obtain if nothing was agreed. I think they are comparing it with life before Brexit, which is utopian and unreal.

Perhaps even those in the North who voted for Brexit are now beginning to understand the implications of that vote. We will continue to negotiate in good faith and we want an agreed solution. The rules on animal and plant health origin are very important from an Irish point of view because we know what happens when diseases cross borders. We do say to the UK, and we have said it repeatedly as have others, that we can solve a lot of these problems even with a temporary agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary, not a forced agreement but a temporary agreement. I am being given the five minute science so I will come back on some of the comments on rules of origin, if I may, towards the end if the Cathaoirleach will give me some time.