Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the overall EU mood, the EU has been very supportive of the Northern Ireland peace process from the word go. The solidarity shown by our fellow EU member states towards Ireland has been extraordinary and has held. It never broke down on any of these issues throughout the process. One of the sessions of our Joint Committee on European Union Affairs was to deal with the whole question of the invoking of Article 16. We gave the vice president, Maroš Šefovi, quite a tough time. That action on Article 16 was a fundamental mistake, as the Chairman has just said. From that point of view there was a lack of understanding on the part of the European Commission about Ireland. Michel Barnier fully understood the full situation in Northern Ireland because of his previous experience, and so forth.

The EU, as Baroness Ritchie will know, has been so supportive of the peace process going back many years. I think that is why Ireland got such solidarity: because of the need to maintain the peace process in Northern Ireland. However, trust has broken down, as other speakers have said. The failure to adhere to international agreements has poisoned the waters as far as the EU is concerned, but from the point of view of the protocol, Maroš Šefovi is determined to make this work.

I have dealt with the advantages of the Northern Ireland protocol. It is to bring in foreign direct investment and to allow Northern Ireland businesses to export to both the UK and the EU. As other speakers have said, that would be very beneficial not just to the economy of Northern Ireland but to the society generally.

I draw the subcommittee's attention to the shared island initiative. When we spoke to Hilary Benn's committee, he was not too familiar with it. It is an initiative launched by the new Government last year. I ask the witnesses to examine and study that and the need for cross-Border infrastructural projects. The Irish Government approved financing of €500 million in the budget this year for cross-Border structures and institutions across a wide range of Departments. It is a major initiative by the Government and something to which I wanted to draw the witnesses' attention.