Dr. John Reynolds:

I will add one line to that. It goes back to the second question from Senator Higgins about the options paper and what the European Union is discussing at the moment. There is now recognition that there are important initiatives the European Union can undertake as a Union. It has now been accepted and recognised that member states can block imports from settlements at their respective national level for public policy reasons. The arguments about that exemption and that permissibility, which were made in these Houses for many years, have been accepted.

At a European level, we should not underestimate the role that Ireland played in that regard. There was the recent letter by the nine member states. That it is now explicitly accepted as a policy option shows that there will be a need for the two layers of national member states and the European Union to proceed with as much urgency as possible.