Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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Thank you. I thank colleagues for their contributions and their attendance. I also thank our colleagues from the Good Friday Agreement committee who came along and added to the event. I thank the ambassador and Mr. Welsh for attending.

We are at the beginning of a process. One point I must emphasise is that while we will be on separate sides of the table in this process, solutions are less likely to work if we do not work together. I thank H.E. Mr. Barnett for taking the time to appear before the committee and for answering our questions comprehensively. I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of him and his colleagues in the British Embassy as the negotiating process proceeds. I wish him the best success as UK ambassador to Ireland. We are delighted he is here and, on behalf of the committee, I am very grateful to him for coming today with his colleague. He was very open and, as he said in his statement, he is also here to listen, which is very important. We can develop the questions that have been put by members today. Follow-up is very important and we look forward to further meetings with the ambassador as the process proceeds and negotiations start. He is a very close conduit for us. Again, it is very important that Members of the British Parliament, both from the House of Commons and the House of Lords, come here just as we will be going on a very regular basis to Britain. The upcoming meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly is another very important event which will allow for dialogue to continue with our parliamentary colleagues from the United Kingdom and from the regional parliaments. I again thank the ambassador for his time and his courtesy.