Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try to bring Senator Gallagher back in. We will see if the communications are back running. We still cannot hear him. Senator Gallagher, if you want to send your question by the chat function, I will ask it for you. I might ask the Minister a question while Senator Gallagher is doing that.

At our last meeting, we had Vice-President Šefovi before our committee and he gave us a very comprehensive update and was quite candid in his contributions. He was questioned around the accuracy of the current proposals on reducing checks by 80%. His remark was that we know the Single Market and the customs union. He was quite strong in his remarks that what it has offered is good and doable. When pressed on what might happen if there is not a resolution or if Article 16 is triggered, he said that the EU was ready to take whatever steps are needed. A week is a long time in this process. What is the current state of the negotiations? Do you feel that there is a mood there to try to resolve this?