Mr. Philip Kelly:

I will begin to do so and will ask my colleague, Ms Benson, to contribute also.

The European Union gave the Commission a mandate in 2009 to open the negotiations with Canada and in anticipation of that happenindg, the Department engaged with industry stakeholders on our priorities in the negotiations. I was not at the Department at the time. The negotiating process is conducted by the Commission which, chapter by chapter, in the intervening years made and received draft offers with the Canadians. The Commission guided how it put forward or responded to offers with the trade policy committee on which Ms Benson is Ireland's representative. It guided the Commission in deciding how it should put forward or accept offers. Successive colleagues in the trade area in the Department would have liaised with business and agriculture interests, in particular, on offers the European Union would exchange, sector by sector, with the Canadian Government.