Mr. Rory Montgomery:

Of course. Without getting into the question of unity generally, I will make a couple of points. It certainly was important from more than a symbolic point of view to nail the issue down at the European Council meeting at the end of April 2017, which set the broad negotiating parameters. The then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, did not secure a declaration that in the event of Irish unity, Northern Ireland would automatically enter into the EU, as was the case with East Germany. Some people are still asking that question and it is useful to consider it. I think other member states will regard the question of unity as one entirely for the Irish people to determine in the first instance and then for the Irish and British Governments to work out after that. I remain in touch with quite a few ambassadors here and they all have a keen interest in this question and how it is evolving.

I will give a little plug in saying I am a member of the steering committee of the Analysing and Researching Ireland, North and South, ARINS, project, which is a joint Royal Irish Academy-University of Notre Dame project to engage in research in a non-partisan way on the future of the island. We have came to notice because we co-sponsored with The Irish Timesthe recent series of polls on attitudes to unity and so on. There is a lot of information there. We have published 31 articles and I have done 19 podcasts. There is a lot of material if anybody wants to read it.

Regarding Britain's role as an ally to us in Europe, as I said, Britain was an important ally on a number of subjects. I have a couple of observations to make on this point. At times, people would talk as if we had spent 40-plus years speaking only to the British, which clearly is not the case. We always had other partners. France, for example, was our main ally on agriculture. When it came to the creation of the Structural Fund, we worked with the Spanish, Portuguese and Greeks. We have put a lot of effort, as Mr. Connelly said, into trying to structure and systemise relationships with other like-minded countries, but the fact is we always had good relationships with a number of key partners. It is interesting to look back to the 1970s and 1980s when the big issues on the agenda for a long time were the budget, with Mrs. Thatcher wanting to get her money back, and the agricultural fund. On those issues, Ireland and Britain were diametrically opposed. Funnily enough, that coincided with things beginning to evolve towards the peace process.

Deputy Ó Murchú is absolutely right on the rule of law question. Hungary has shown it is possible for a member state, in effect, to flout European norms. I do not know exactly how that can be dealt with. There is some use of finance as a kind of lever on Hungary but it is not easy. The Polish Government is shortly to decide on which way it will jump on certain recommendations to roll back some of its judicial reforms. We shall see. Incidentally, I think this is one of the issues that will be on people's minds when they consider Ukraine's application for membership because Ukraine is a country that has suffered a great deal of corruption and a degree of political instability. Whatever about the war, the question is whether Ukraine is in a position in the long term to fulfil all the obligations of membership. That is a question some member states will ask. They might not ask it publicly but it is a question that is there.

On austerity, I very much lived through all of that activity.