Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses for their brevity. I am sorry that we have a hard stop but I will draw a line under it there. I did not mention Ms Teresa Lennon as head of the European Regions Office in Brussels and who works in Dublin as well. I want to acknowledge her presence as well as Ms Chiara Malagodi who is here as head of the president’s cabinet. I also did not mention Micheál Ó Conchúir, ard runaí, coiste na réigiún, who was a great help for me when I was on the committee. I particularly want to thank the president, Ms Tütt and Ms Coughlan as head of the delegation, for coming here and giving us a lot of time but also the benefit of their experience and expertise. We are very grateful to them. It has given us a lot of food for thought and I look forward to the engagement next week with the regional assemblies when we will have a chance to play out many of these issues again with them. I thank everyone for their time.

Before we finish, I want to acknowledge the absence of Senator Chris Andrews from whom I have also received apologies. Senator Andrews was on the Sumud flotilla to Gaza. He only got back late last night having been illegally arrested by Israeli forces in international waters. I wanted to send the committee's acknowledgement of his work there, to welcome him back and acknowledge his absence today for that reason.