Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus very briefly on the European Council, which was the question asked. The Taoiseach touched on three outstanding issues in respect of Brexit, namely, oversight, fisheries and a level playing field. I do not have time to go into them in detail.

We went through them in detail earlier today in discussions at the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs with the House of Lords' committee. Even those who were very strongly anti-Brexit were concerned about the requirements on the European Union side in regard to oversight. It was European Union oversight that was at issue. They asked us if we could address that issue and if there was an independent body that might well address that issue. The fisheries issue is obviously a fundamental issue, but has now become totemic as a matter of sovereignty as supposed to a matter of fish.

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