Professor Ben Tonra:

I will take the one on the consultative forum first. I was a bit disappointed, frankly, with the consultative forum. It did a fine job of work in terms of raising public attention, raising public awareness and having those big public meetings. The report stated a lot of things that we knew were already there and in place. The forum, in raising the question about the triple lock, has put something onto the political agenda which is now being dealt with and will play out as it needs to. However, there is a much bigger job of work to be done.

The Deputy said he is confronting these issues and hearing about them at a European level and I just do not know if that is being translated back down into public conversation and debate. This leads again, in response to Deputy Howlin's point, to living in a false paradise and not really understanding the scale of what is happening. That needs to be addressed.

On the European industrial base, I feel I should make a declaration of interest. I have been volunteering for a number of years in setting up an industry association precisely in this area, the Irish Defence and Security Association. It is a big issue. It is reflective of my earlier comments about Ireland's traditional engagement in European security and defence. We have done just enough to stay in the room but not really try to put into it or take anything out of it. There is an issue there, particularly for Irish companies, Irish universities and Irish researchers. Irish researchers are being cut out of competitions. Irish companies are being cut out of opportunities, because there is not the level of State support and engagement that other countries are providing their equivalents in their countries' industries like photovoltaics, robotics and biohazards. There are Irish companies in that space, which are referred to as dual use, and they are effectively cut out of a lot of these European programmes.

Again, there may be perfectly legitimate policy reasons for doing that on the basis of Ireland's traditional military neutrality, but it would be useful if that was actually addressed front and centre, saying we are going to contribute to these things but we are not going to try to take anything out of it because of our public policy reasons. We are in this bizarre little grey zone where we say we are participating and yet we hobble those companies and those universities that are trying to engage. We have had universities cut out of consortia. We have had Irish researchers not able to serve on expert committees because we do not have a system for national security clearance. We do not have support from some of the State agencies in this area. This is self-interest because I am involved on a voluntary basis with that association but it is a policy issue that needs to be addressed.

Finally, with respect to the memorandum of understanding, MoU, as soon as the Deputy finds out, I would love to hear.