Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A total of eight persons have visited the reading room: three officials and five Deputies. The EU-US free trade negotiations are the most open and transparent trade negotiations to date. Reports relating to each round of discussions with all information on the EU position in the negotiations are published on the European Commission's website. Unlike the EU, the US does not publish its negotiating texts and the US has separate protocols for reading its documentation, effectively limiting access to Members of Congress. Special reading rooms have been created in capitals around Europe to allow equivalent access to European and national parliamentarians to review the consolidated EU-US versions of the negotiating texts. I have written to the Ceann Comhairle and I have invited Deputies to come and view the documents. Members are very welcome to do so. More need to come and see the documents, as Deputy Wallace has done.

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