Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

We chatted about this last year as well and what I said is that first of all we have to rely on those in Northern Ireland to do their job. That is their obligation is. If we did not rely on the competent authorities in other member states across the European Union to do their jobs, we would have no Single Market. That is the first issue. The second is that there is Commission supervision of what is going on in the North. The Commission has people inspecting this and making sure they are complying with the rules. The third issue is that we have very close relationships with the people in the North. I met with my counterpart last Wednesday. She was down in my office. We have very close relationships with the people in the North.

We do not have a supervisory role in relation to what is going on.