Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I wish the Commissioner good afternoon and thank him for his time. Like everyone here I want to genuinely thank him for the huge commitment he has shown and, as everybody has said, his unending patience. As the Commissioner explained and as we know, there is a huge level of detail in the Windsor Framework because that will underpin everything. We have an expression here that an issue is "in safe hands", and in my opinion the Windsor Framework was in safe hands when he was dealing with it at an EU level. There is a genuine sense that people are grateful that hurdle has finally been cleared and the Commissioner's role in it was extremely important.

I have one or two quite specific questions about the framework itself. The Commissioner mentioned level playing field commitments. Will he expand on that a little? I might come back with a supplementary question depending on his response. What safeguards are there where a possible divergence in standards occurs? What is in place to help guarantee that level playing field?

My second questions is that we are looking at the free trade of goods but we have restricted trade in services. Will the Commissioner elaborate a little on that? To give a concrete example will there be any impact on companies from Northern Ireland who wish to tender for work in the Republic? Is there any impact on those companies? How will that be worked out given that we have a restricted trade in services?

Finally, on the issue of state aid it says here that Article 10(1) of the protocol states that EU state aid rules are to be applied in cases where aid provided to companies could affect trade in goods and electricity between Northern Ireland and the EU, and that the framework itself contains a Joint Declaration on circumstances in which this material effect could occur. Obviously state aid rules between the Republic and Northern Ireland and their impact are very important. Is the Commissioner reasonably satisfied that the protections are robust enough to ensure, to say it straight out, that we are not negatively impacted by changes in the state aid regime in Northern Ireland?