Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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-----including the former Chairperson. It might be because there is a lot of wisdom and experience on this committee and the time comes eventually to move on.

I wish to be associated with the sympathy expressed on the death of John Bruton. I recall John Bruton coming before this committee in a previous Dáil. I believe he had retired from the Dáil by then but he was a member of a forum on the constitution of Europe - whose members we called "the three wise men" - that came before the committee. It was clear that he was committed to the European project and that he had huge experience and wisdom. The constitution for Europe was eventually scuppered by a referendum in France but John Bruton certainly put a lot of work into it. As an Opposition backbencher during parliamentary questions, I appreciated that he was constructive and helpful in trying to answer my questions on the floor of the Dáil. It was always nice to meet him socially, which more recently happened at funerals, unfortunately. He was full of chat and conversation. I send my sincere sympathy to his family, the Minister of State and the Fine Gael Party.

As the Minister of State knows, we were in Brussels recently and we met with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefovi. Has the Commission issued any formal response yet to the deal between the UK Government and the DUP? It is great to see the institutions up and running; it was a historic day last Saturday and a lot of work and effort went into achieving that. When we met Vice-President Šefovi, the deal had just been announced and he had not seen the detail of it at that point. I hope the European Commission can live with what was agreed between the UK Prime Minister and the DUP.

As for farmer protests, it is an issue we picked up from speaking to several people in Brussels. As the Minister of State knows there are a lot of protests across Europe; namely Poland blocking imports of grain from Ukraine, French and German farmers opposed to the cessation of tax breaks on diesel, Spanish farmers no longer being allowed to use river water to irrigate their fields and there have been protests in Ireland as well. There seems to be a crisis in agriculture and that will feed into the European elections and will affect the working of the EU institutions generally. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has set up something called "strategic dialogues" on the future of agriculture in response to these protests and the concern around agriculture. Has the Minister of State any view on this issue around farmers being generally unhappy with the model within which they must operate, the subsidies they receive and so forth? Does he have any view on the "strategic dialogues" and what does he believe will come out of that?

To reiterate what other members have said on Palestine, the Taoiseach made a number of comments on the situation in the Middle East when he came out of the summit meeting, namely the recognition of the state of Palestine.

I assume the Tánaiste is raising that issue in the US as we speak. The Taoiseach also spoke about the need to continue funding UNRWA and to review the EU-Israel trade agreement. I support him on all of that. The Minister of State has answered those questions.

He mentioned that there are a lot of legal issues with regard to qualified majority voting. Can it be done within the existing treaties? That is the bottom line. What, if anything, can be done within the existing treaties to reduce the use of qualified majority voting in respect of various specific issues?

On the EU pact on migration and asylum, the decision-making process in the EU seems very complex. I am not quite sure what stage that pact is at. I know the various parties have agreed to aspects of it. It is hoped that it will finally be agreed by everybody by April. The pact specified various measures that member states would be obliged to implement or that Ireland could opt into. When will Ireland make a decision on that? That is probably more of a question for the Department of Justice but are we considering the various measures under this pact and whether Ireland will opt into them?