Mr. Francie Molloy:

I thank Mr. Sheridan and Dr. Soares for their presentations. They have created a separate discussion which is partly beneficial. I would like to pick up on Mr. Sheridan's point about the Irish Government looking after its "own people" first. We are the Irish Government's "own people" in the North. The business people in the North and the South are also the Irish Government's "own people". There is a danger that complacency will set in with regard to the Good Friday Agreement in the context of Brexit. There is a concern that the South will look after its own. That is one of the reasons we do not have that much faith that the South will look after the North in a post-Brexit situation. A forum has been set up, but people are being taken to it kicking and screaming. They were refusing to take part and trying to block it. They did not agree to it at first, but a date has now been set. There is no great enthusiasm for the work of the forum on the effects of Brexit in the North. Perhaps there is some enthusiasm for its work on the effects in the South. We need to look at this on an all-Ireland basis.

It is very important to examine how we can get Unionists to this forum or to the new forum that has been set up. I suggest that one way to do this is to intensify the existing structures of the Good Friday Agreement. One of the complaints of Unionists is there are enough structures in place already. We need the new forum because the existing structures do not relate to Brexit in particular, but we also need to intensify the structures that are in place under the Good Friday Agreement. As Dr. Soares has said, the business of this committee is the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. The agreement is not being implemented. A number of outstanding issues have not been dealt with. There is no urgency to deal with them or put them in place. We need to look at the role of the Good Friday Agreement at the present time. Are we cradling it along until it collapses at some stage?

I think Mr. Sheridan and Dr. Soares were right when they said there has been no softening of positions in relation to Brexit. Those who voted "Leave" are confident that they made the right choice. Some people seem to think farmers are the most responsive in this regard, but it seems to me that members of the farming community are confident that Brexit will be beneficial for them. I do not see any softening of positions.

I would like to respond to the point Dr. Soares made the special programmes body. I cannot see any role for the Special EU Programmes Body if Brexit happens. In such circumstances, it would no longer be a cross-Border body and would not be funded by both Governments. I do not think its role should be reinvented in such a situation. We need to look at the role it should have now in trying to move forward the implementation of the present funding as speedily as possible. I have to say from my own particular position that the Special EU Programmes Body has not been very helpful as we have been trying to deliver funds to communities on the ground. Other EU structures have been more helpful in that regard. I do not think the Special EU Programmes Body has been helpful to local communities at all.

On the issue of controls, the Irish Sea and the structures like the ports cannot just become a new border to police Britain's problems. I think it would be a major mistake to go down that road. There is an indication that people are in danger of heading down that road because they think this can be dealt with by keeping people out. That would not deal with the problems.

There is a danger of not dealing with or recognising the issue of the Remain votes. It is about how to police it instead, and in that case the South would just become a policeman for the British Government.

In all the research, where are the positives within Brexit? There must be positives within this as well. Everybody is looking at the negatives. How can Brexit move the peace process forward? How can we look at all-Ireland institutions to deal with this? Ultimately, partition was the original problem and it is still a problem. Brexit reinforces that partition is still a problem. I was an Irish citizen before the Good Friday Agreement. Although that may have been reinforced by the Good Friday Agreement, it did not make me an Irish person. It is the fact that I live on the island of Ireland is what makes me an Irish person. Partition has always been the problem I have seen, not whether we are in or out of the European Union. We must examine the positive ways of moving this forward. We are a number of years past the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process has been long and drawn out in it but we have not dealt with the fundamental problem of partition in this country.