Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

In terms of democratic resilience, I would have to leave the specific point about Coimisiún na Meán to the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport. I met him yesterday and one of the issues he raised with the digital industries or social media companies was the fact that he is going to work with France on age verification. The French minister may well have been over. They have certainly met some of the tech companies and they are looking at what they can do.

We do not have a digital services tax. There is no EU one. Some countries have a digital services tax. We do not want a digital services tax and there are no specific proposals. There is always a lot of speculation around a digital services tax but it has not been proposed.

The take-up of funds can be an issue. I am concerned about that. The reason we mention the CAP so much - I know the Deputy represents a city constituency that is far removed from the CAP - is that for Ireland, as a net contributor, the CAP is the biggest source of European funds into the country. It is very important as well because we want to keep food on the table in the Deputy's constituency and in everyone's constituencies, not just in rural areas. We think it is important. There are various reasons for that, including social reasons. That is why we mention it so much. It is because it is so big. There is scope for greater take-up of funds in other areas. We have done reasonably well with Horizon. We are happy enough with that, although we can always do more, we always want to do more and there are certainly opportunities to do more. There is scope for improvement with some of the other funds. In the forthcoming budget negotiations, we are particularly conscious of competitiveness. There could be opportunities for funding under a putative competitiveness fund with regard to some of the items mentioned by Deputy Hayes from a business side to support those industries. We are interested in that. We are interested in maximising what we receive under those areas so there is scope and it is something we are looking at. We are doing this among ourselves at the moment. I am happy to come before this committee on a regular basis on the budget. One could be here all day every day talking about all the issues around the EU agenda - I am sure the Deputy would not want to do so - but the budget is very significant. If we were to have a discussion on competitiveness and the types of ideas outlined by the Deputy with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment or with business interests, it would be very beneficial because we need to maximise what we get from that fund.

The Deputy mentioned how important EU-UK relations are. That is important. I acknowledge that the EU, the Government and the UK have done significant work to start to normalise relations again. Lots of progress has been made. That is essential for peace on this island and for economic progress. I had a good meeting with the British ambassador this morning. He has been the ambassador since I first became a Minister of State. There is a different atmosphere when one talks to him. He has always been very open and engaging as I am sure most members probably know. The work under this Government and the UK has been really helpful to everybody.