Ms Maeve Collins:

My understanding is that all of the EU's PCA agreements now contain, as standard, a trigger mechanism which would allow the agreement to be suspended in the event of a serious violation of human rights or democratic principles. Essentially, that would mean a suspension of the aid and technical assistance that would flow from this PCA once it comes into effect. I should add that it would have to be a very egregious, serious breach before there would be such a suspension. I am not aware of any existing agreement being suspended. It would have to be something along the lines of a military coup or some other very dramatic event. There is a clear acknowledgement in this agreement that this is a country which is not yet at a stage of human rights protection that we would enjoy in Ireland or in other developed democracies.