Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

I thank the Chairman. Between us we will address the various points that were made. I will certainly be delighted to pass on the committee's positive words about the work of the diplomatic service, especially on Brexit but not just on Brexit. It genuinely is a huge whole-of-Government effort and across all parties. I will certainly pass on those words. As one of the officials involved in the Brexit omnibus Bill, I again express our appreciation for the huge cross-party effort by the Oireachtas to get that Bill through in a very short time. As the Tánaiste has said, it is to be hoped it can continue to sit on the shelf.

I will turn first to the questions. I put it to Deputy Haughey that they were a little political but I will try to respond. Deputies Haughey and Durkan spoke on the rise of populism in the form of the hard right and the hard left. The Tánaiste has spoken about this issue, so I will very much draw from him. Obviously it is a concern for all member states to different degrees. We see it in all member states. We should not be too pessimistic, however, because there are also some positive trends. I was struck by the recent election of the first woman President in Slovakia from a very strong, open and liberal agenda. It moves in those directions, but because the EU is often a target for some of this populism, part of what we have to do at EU level is to be very close to our citizens in terms of explaining what the EU is and what it does and delivers. The citizens' dialogue led by the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, last year was very important in this regard, but so too is the Oireachtas and this committee in particular. Voices articulating clearly what it is the EU can and does achieve are very important in this. The EU is complicated, and one of the challenges around populism is this tack to very simple messages. It is harder to talk about the complicated things but we need to do that. We need to give strong support to the EU in that sense, and all voices need to be around that. It is important for us. Some of the issues arise from mistaken or misunderstood perceptions. Some have validity, for example, around the differing impacts of globalisation on different parts of the community and on different economic sectors, and these need to be addressed at EU and national levels.

Deputy Haughey referred to particular countries, namely, Hungary and Poland. The Deputy will be aware that they are involved in what we call the Article 7 procedure, which is a rule of law procedure at EU level with Commission and Parliament-led views on issues relating to the rule of law in both of those countries. There have been extensive discussions at the General Affairs Council on those issues, in which the Department and the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, have participated actively, stressing very much the importance of the rule of law and the centre it gives us in managing our affairs domestically and at EU level. That process will continue. There are also efforts around finding other pathways to address the issue. For example, the Belgian and German governments have proposed a different and more informal peer review process. The important thing is to continue to engage, which we are doing, including formally at the General Affairs Council.

Reference was made to the tensions around more or less integration. The pace at which it moves and how we move forward together has always been part of what the EU is about. It is always critically important that the direction of travel be a shared one. President Macron was mentioned, and from our perspective some of his vision would go further than we would currently be. In our case, it comes back to the ambassador, Mr. Hackett's comments that we are a pragmatic member state. Where it makes sense to work together at EU level, we will want to do that, while protecting certain core national interests and national responsibility such as taxation, as mentioned by Deputy Durkan.

The Chairman had some very clear questions, some of which we may need to go away to think about a bit more. Catherine Day's point about not just engaging on our issues but to do so more broadly is very important. It goes back to Mr. Hackett's comment on not going to the Commission just when Ireland has a problem and to be part of the positive agendas. Ireland does quite a bit of this already in areas such as the Single Market and the digital Single Market, where we very much take part in the creation of the positive agenda. It is the case that this is not just about finding like-minded groups and working with them. This is also about deepening our understanding of the perspectives of other member states. This is why the issue-based work that goes on in Brussels is very important with regard to the legislative proposals. From accompanying the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, on visits around Europe, we can see that the engagement in another country by a Minister gives us a depth of understanding that, as a country, we might not otherwise get. It is very important. We are also trying to do that at official level with a lot more EU dialogue with key countries.

With regard to what the Oireachtas and Parliament might do, I am sure the committee members have far better insights on that than I do. Clearly, however, the parliamentary strand is very important because it brings us beyond Government into the range of political opinion in any given country, which is very important, and it ties back into the first point. Parliamentary visits, both outward and inward, are very important around key agendas, especially when one considers that some of the Parliaments have very strong roles vis-à-visEU issues. They are also important in terms of our strategic interests and the priorities we have outlined, for example, with some of the Nordic and Baltic countries. To map a parliamentary engagement complementary to a government-to-government engagement is very valuable. I can pass over the Mr. Hackett if there is anything else.