Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their engagement. I wish to say that I might have to leave early. It will not necessarily be because I do not like their answers.

It has already been stated that people see the necessity for harmonisation in pandemic supports, and in some cases want to see such harmonisation. Those supports may be followed by a Marshall Plan-type fiscal stimulus. That will go along with the European Commission's involvement in vaccine procurement and other health issues. Dr. Coutts spoke about health and fiscal competencies. How far can European integration be pushed under the Lisbon strategy before treaty change is needed? That is not necessarily where I want to go. There are fears of loss of state sovereignty. There are sometimes fears that Europe is overly interested in privatisation and is against state intervention. This has been turned on its head lately. There are also fears of possible militarisation.

We all welcome further engagement and see the necessity for it, particularly in the context of the matter to which I have already referred. This engagement should also concern Brexit and European solidarity on the issues of the Border and the Good Friday Agreement. People see the necessity of the European Union, but they still have the worries they had ten or more years ago about how Europe dealt with the banking crisis. As a committee, we accept that we need to raise our game where interaction is concerned. We must build our capacity to scrutinise European legislation and see where the drift is. How we can play a part in the further engagement of citizens? I like the idea of the standing citizens' assembly to which Dr. Coutts referred. How would he envisage that working?