Mr. Barry Andrews:

Thank you very much for the invitation, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. It is really great to be back in the Seanad ten years on from when I was a Minister of State and dealing with various bits of legislation here. It is a great initiative. As you have just explained it, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, the need for connection between Dublin and Brussels has increased exponentially since Brexit and anything we do to try to increase those links will be richly rewarded, including today’s exercise. We are the second constituency to be brought in before the Seanad.

I have written to the Chair of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, Deputy McHugh, to express my view that the scrutiny of EU legislation in the Oireachtas generally, not just in the Seanad, but in the committees of the Oireachtas should be substantially increased and reformed. Not to change the method of scrutiny after Brexit is something that we will regret. When I was in the Dáil there was a sub-committee of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs which dealt exclusively with scrutiny of EU legislation. That is no longer the case and I think it should be built back in. For example, the Finnish Parliament's Upper House is exclusively responsible for the scrutiny of European affairs, so I think there is more that we can do under that heading.

I will briefly share with the House the main items that I am dealing with as an MEP. I am a member of the European Parliament’s delegation to the UK, so part of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly under the trade and co-operation agreement with the UK. That has not kicked into action yet, but tomorrow I will be in Belfast meeting with various interlocutors, including a representative of the unionist parties, the SDLP, the Alliance Party and Sinn Féin. I will be meeting with representatives of the business community and civil society. On Thursday, I will be in London meeting with representatives in Westminster as well as academics and people who are interested in Brexit. Brexit is a main part of my job, but I am also on the joint committee with other Members of the European Parliament that has dealings directly with Maroš Šefovi under the withdrawal agreement, so it does occupy a lot of my time.

My main committee as a full member is the Committee on International Trade. International trade is one of the key competences of the European Union, where it has exclusive competence over member states. The trade agenda is something I am sure Members will wish to pose questions about.

I am a substitute member of the Committee on Development, which is an area of great interest to me given my background as a former CEO of GOAL. That has led me to be chair of the European Parliament’s informal group called the SDG, Alliance, which tries to assess the implementation of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, at a European framework. I took up that role earlier this year. The sustainable development goals are a perfect roadmap for post-Covid pandemic recovery. It is an informal group. We are trying to incorporate the SDGs into the European semester. We are also trying to get a key debate and annual report on the SDGs at some point early next year as part of the European Parliament’s annual calendar.

The final area I will mention is that I will be rapporteur on the Committee on International Trade's opinion on due diligence. This is a piece of legislation which is aimed at ensuring that supply chains are cleaned up from the point of view of environmental degradation but also human rights. It will have a huge impact on the way the European Union's businesses deal with their supply chains from third countries, where there have been many instances of child labour and deforestation. We are suffering carbon leakage in the context of environmental degradation, but we are also facilitating human rights abuses in various parts of the world. The due diligence legislation is designed to provide a European framework so that we can have confidence that our supply chains are appropriate for European values.I will leave it at that, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I look forward to the question-and-answer session.