Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is great to have Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Connelly here. A friend of mine would always tell me, if I attempted to be smart by dissing experts or people with seniority, to take out my CV and see how it stacked up against theirs. I defer to Mr. Montgomery in that sense because he has put an impressive CV in front of us. The Vice Chair has already described Mr. Connelly as the experts' expert. I must admit that I follow Mr. Connelly and I would hate if anyone ever checked how many times I have checked his Brexit protocol news. I thank him for all of his work.

Strangely, Deputy Haughey jumped straight to the Irish protocol, which is the issue on which I wanted to start. Obviously we are all a lot happier that there is a will. We were always going to find some technological means of sorting out the problem if the two parties, in particular the British Government, were up for doing so. Like others, I think Rishi Sunak has an awful lot of plates spinning and we would like to think he needs a deal. The DUP has done what political unionism often does. It went into a cul de sac but it was given cover by the British Government, particular under Boris Johnson who made moves on the protocol for his own reasons. We are in a better place. European Union solidarity has held up. The process seems to be moving in the right direction. I will not ask to for a crystal ball decisions on that but I will ask for other crystal ball determinations.

At this point, the biggest show in town for us is getting agreement on the protocol across the line. We would like to see that happen.

Beyond that, have there been any discussions around the sense that Brexit has changed the conversation in Ireland on Irish unity? It is a conversation that is happening. People may not want to make political calls at this point in time and might feel safer once we get beyond the protocol issue. The British Government is selling that resolution to the DUP, but it is a question now of the DUP finding a way to get itself off its own hook. Be that as it may, the conversation on Irish unity is happening. There is a considerable degree of thinking, even among those who never would have thought it was possible before, that unity is a definite likelihood within the next while. What is the feeling in Europe on this issue?

Mr. Montgomery spoke about how Ireland is well liked but everybody has their own interests. It is a case of Moses is Moses but business is business. It was often said that this State was reliant on Britain to do due diligence on legislation and whatever else was coming through from the EU. We have seen attempts to get more engagement on Europe, as difficult as it is to get engagement in politics, at everything from the societal level right up to parliamentary involvement. What do the witnesses see as the moves that are necessary to make in this regard, particularly if there is a weakness at present and if we are not doing the piece of work we need to do?

I was lucky to sit on the Conference on the Future of Europe. It was an impressive forum on some levels. It probably started badly and found its shape as it went on. It then went into a cul-de-sac at times in its overemphasis on qualified majority voting, QMV, versus unanimity. That was understandable given the rule of law issues across Europe. For all the EU's faults, when we check it against the world in which the politics of the strong man reigns - I am thinking of Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin at this time - the Union could almost be called a hopeful beacon.

However, we are looking back over the past 50 years and there have been wrong turns made by the European Union over that time. Do the witnesses agree there is now an acceptance that the austerity policies the EU operated at times were wrong? The Commission was probably far worse far than the International Monetary Fund, IMF, in this regard. There were issues with state aid rules and there was almost a belief that the market and privatisation would sort everything. The EU's stance on Brexit showed solidarity with this State. The response to Covid showed a different type of solidarity and made the argument that, particularly in regard to health services, we need a public sector that is able to do business. There is now the Ukrainian situation. We see that there needs to be, as there has been during the Covid period, flexibility at times on fiscal constraints.

We are only now having a real engagement on Ukraine's accession. The Russian invasion of Ukraine amounts to a complete reorientation of the world, right down to supply chain issues and the discussion around drones and finding out what are the individual parts and where they are from. Strategic autonomy is a term we used but now it is something real. I have already asked for some gazing into the crystal ball. It is a question now of going a bit further and looking at how we see this progressing. We all hope to get to the stage at some point where there is some element of a peace process. I imagine there will be a lot of pain for the Ukrainian people before we get to that point.

I will finish there because I have asked quite a few questions.