Ms Barbara Nolan:

There were some very painful experiences in the course of accessing the supply of vaccines. We were let down by one particular producer. I would say it did not deliver as was agreed and this caused problems. Fortunately, there were alternatives. Indeed, the EU had spread its orders and had ordered supplies from several companies. At least, that was able in time to make up the shortfalls that we experienced. There are lessons that have been very much learned by the Commission in the management of that. We will have to make sure that we have a spread of suppliers in the future and that we are not overdependent on any one particular company. In a way, all is well that ends well to some extent. Look where we are now. Who would have believed it? This time last year we did not even have a vaccine. All in all, it was a good experience in the end but I agree with the Deputy that over-reliance on any one supplier clearly is not the way to go. Indeed, the creation of this new Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority, HERA, will help us have a better overview in the future and to be ready for something like this, which was a black swan moment in a way which nobody was expecting.

On security and defence co-operation, I am glad the Deputy said it is not an EU army. It is not. A lesson has been learned from the Afghanistan debacle where, for example, we were reliant on the United States to evacuate our citizens and we did not have the capacity to get people, or even refugees, out. This is not new as in a way, this reflection has been going on. Also, there was reflection about there being a lot of defence expenditure in the member states which is not necessarily linked up, using economies of scale, or being smart about what they purchase or pooling resources. There are many issues in relation to better co-operation on defence. This is the reflection that is going on at present. It will look at probably issues such as crisis management, our resilience as the EU, capability development and better development of partnerships between the member states and between the EU and other parts of the world. This is on the drawing board. When we think of issues such as cybersecurity, that is also a question of defence. We must further develop our cybersecurity protection against these attacks that are now happening on a daily basis across the world. These are the kind of issues that we will look at. As I said, this debate on a defence union will be kicked off under the French Presidency.

On eurobonds, I take note of the Deputy's comments but I do not have anything substantial to add to that today.

Let us get to the protocol. Obviously, today is a big day for the Commission. The Commission will unveil a package. I was listening to RTÉ radio this morning and I heard a very good summary of what is coming down the tracks from RTÉ's Brussels correspondent, who is very well informed. The Commission Vice-President, Mr. Šefovi, came to Ireland and Northern Ireland a month ago. He spent two days engaging with stakeholders, citizens and people on the ground from different walks of life - human rights, business, NGOs, those who benefited from PEACE funding etc. He has taken careful note of the real problems on the ground that people are being confronted with as a result of the protocol. The Commission is trying to find practical solutions to practical problems. What will be announced later today will be a very far-reaching response to what the Commission Vice-President has heard and to the British command paper and will further build on a package that was already put on the table by the Commission on 30 June last, which passed without particular engagement but is there and we will build on.

It is intended to stretch our response to the absolute limits and try to address the problems on the ground. We do not want to escalate the rhetoric or engage in political brinkmanship. We want to find practical solutions to practical problems and ease any particular issues about goods moving from the UK to Northern Ireland. That is the purpose of the four papers coming out today. The idea is our officials will immediately travel to London and start to engage on this. That is where we are at and we are trying to keep the noise from the sidelines out for the moment and focus on coming up with practical solutions to practical problems.

On the rule of law, the Commission is carefully studying the ruling from the Polish courts. It is a serious challenge to the EU structure and the primacy of EU law. This is what the EU is built on and there cannot be a situation in which national courts start to overrule EU law. The arbiter of EU law is the European Court of Justice and that is a fundamental point. We have a number of tools which we have been using over the past years for breaches of rule of law and fundamental rights. We have the infringement procedure, the rule of law mechanism and Article 7. We have a rule of law toolbox and we also have the recommendations that will be in the annual rule of law report.

We will not rashly respond at this stage. We have seen Polish citizens coming out on the streets very much demonstrating their support for the European Union and their belief in it. This is heartening for us all. We want to see how we can engage with and deal with this, but I do not have much more to bring to the table on this issue because we are studying this ruling from the Polish courts.