Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge Deputy Haughey's contribution to European affairs. Every time I have been in the Dáil to talk about the European Council, he has been there asking pertinent questions about the European context and the issues facing Europe. I wish him well, although I hope there is a long time to go yet in this current Dáil and look forward to working with him into the future.

On the Deputy's second last question, which was about Israel, we spoke about that issue and I share his views on the importance of the Tánaiste being in the US at the moment pushing this issue, getting our voice heard at the highest level and working with the US's interlocutors in the region.

On the agreement with the UK authorities, we have not formally heard anything from the Commission but I suspect it is okay. I do not see any great concerns being raised in connection with it. The agreement on data sharing a few months before the Windsor Framework was a significant milestone because it gave the EU authorities full access to the revenue and customs authorities in the UK so that they could, in real time, see data on the profile of goods coming in. The more knowledge and real-life information we have, the more flexibilities we can live with as regards penetrating into the Single Market. That basket of goods has been rebalanced and I do not hear any negative soundings as of yet. I am hopeful that everything is okay in that regard.

On farmers, when we were over in Brussels, they were holding very large protests, as were also seen here, about the regulatory environment they now operate in. I come from a farming background myself as my dad was a farmer and I know how frustrating it can be for farmers to try to keep up. They feel like they are running on a treadmill trying to stay still because so much new regulation comes down the tracks. Agriculture has a lot of ground to make up. The sector has a lot of commitments to fulfil into the future. We have to work through those and try to support farmers in every way we can. We see new schemes like ACRES being of great advantage. People were concerned about it at the start but when it first began, it was greatly oversubscribed. We are now trying to expand the scheme to get more people into it. That was very interesting. I note that President Macron was one of the most outspoken at the European Council meeting as regards farming, Mercosur and other areas in which we have to work and support farmers.

We would join with him on that, particularly on the sustainability piece of Mercosur. It is important to get legal terminology in there which can be counted on and continue on that path.

As for qualified majority voting, QMV, there is scope for it within the treaty around enlargement in general and in the process of how decision making will be made and so forth. Obviously, we must be careful when we talk about that. That is why Ireland is an observer member of the group of friends of QMV. We observe the movement on that and then prepare ourselves to put our arguments forward as to how it would affect us as a country. On accession, it is quite different when a country is meeting milestones on entry into the European Union. A lot of legal concerns have been raised on whether this is possible under the parameters of the treaty. The Lisbon treaty is obviously enlargement-proofed in the case of a country being in there but getting there is the question. We will share the paper with the committee and it can look and seek clarifications on it, which is important.

On the asylum and migration pact, the Deputy is quite right. Hopefully, there will be agreement in April. It will probably take until June 2026 for it to be applicable and operable throughout the European Union, which is a significant period of time. I understand the Department of Justice is preparing a memo for Cabinet which is due to be received at the end of March for the Cabinet to decide whether to opt in to the pact. Obviously, there are a whole new set of procedures and rules essentially for people who have misled authorities. I think there is a 24-week window - 12 weeks for application and 12 weeks for appeal. There are new processes for safe countries as well as a general scope of six months to adjudicate on an application. There is a huge amount of work to do in this area, as everyone is quite aware. We will keep briefing members. The Cabinet will have a memo presented to it by the Department of Justice next month.