Mr. Rory Montgomery:

I have a brief footnote to what I said earlier in responding to what Mr. Connelly said about the European Council of April 2017, which adopted a negotiating mandate and also kind of confirmed Northern Ireland’s position in the European Union in the event of unity. It is an example of the kind of diplomatic-linguistic play that has to be engaged in. There was no willingness to have this statement as part of the negotiating mandate. It was not germane to negotiations between the EU and the UK. There was no appetite for the declaration, as such, for a similar reason. In the end, it appeared in the minutes of the European Council. There is such a thing. They were prepared by the secretariat, came around and they are authoritative, but they are not exactly widely publicised or widely known.

I have a couple of points. On the Parliament, I absolutely agree. When I was permanent representative, I always made an effort to travel to Strasbourg, to keep in touch with the Irish MEPs in Brussels and elsewhere, but also with the chairs of other committees and rapporteur and so on. It took a bit of effort. Strasbourg was the best place to do it and it is a five-hour drive, if I remember correctly. It was not easy. Again, however, as chair of COREPER, as I said at the outset, one of the key tasks in fact of a Presidency is negotiating with the Parliament on behalf of the Council. Many people think that when the member states reach an agreement, that is kind of it; however, it is not. For example, major legislation is going through at the moment. It is the alternative investment fund managers directive, which is very important for the funds industry in Ireland and so on. The ECON committee has come to a position the Council has agreed, but then there will be tough back and forth. I do not know how I was ever up until 4 a.m. As already stated, I was involved in many trilogues. One of these, which related to the capital requirements directive, which involved also the introduction of the bankers bonus measure, was the only occasion on which a parliamentarian ever used a four-letter word in my direction. I will tell you who it was in private on another occasion. That was important.

On the other institutional question of more input into scrutiny, this is a constant issue. There is an obligation on the Government and the Oireachtas. After the first Nice referendum was defeated, the European Union (Scrutiny) Act was introduced. I was involved in its preparation. In my experience, it improved matters. Did it go far enough in terms of the engagement of specialist committees? I do not know. Perhaps not. Secondary legislation can be horrendously technical. The Deputy is right that there is very often a view - again, I found it hard to know authoritatively - of gold-plating, namely, that in the context of directives we do not necessarily use the discretion we have to implement the rules in a sensitive way. That is an ongoing matter.

Mr. Connelly made a point about the IRA and globalisation. In the US, the term "IRA" also stands for individual retirement account, which complicates matters further. This is a difficult issue. I would not underestimate the consensus across the board in the US on taking advantage of these measures. I watched an interview on Sunday on the American politics show, “Meet the Press”, with Pete Buttigieg, who is the Secretary of Transportation and the once, and perhaps future, presidential candidate. Mr. Buttigieg is extremely able man. He stated that the objective was to have cars made in America. He wants things made in America. The US will not be diverted from that fundamental objective of “reshoring”, as they put it. At the same time, the EU has been making the point, and not unreasonably, that there are special provisions for Mexico and Canada that the EU should have as well. There is a full press. Commission representatives have travelled over. I think the French and the German economy ministers or finance ministers are there at the moment. We will see what happens.

On the trade agreement, the Deputy is absolutely right. I refer to one of our achievements in our presidency. Deputy Richard Bruton was the Minister involved and I well remember the long day and night in Luxembourg we had getting a mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, which President Obama said he believed could be concluded on one tank of gas. Well, the car ran out of petrol a certain way into the journey and it was never refilled. What Mr. Connelly said is right. The answer is more in dealing with particular issues as they arise. Of course, regulation of the digital sector is perhaps the single greatest challenge we should face in that kind of space.