Dr. Jonny Byrne:

I think Mr. Hazzard is entirely right. The Conservative Party has no psychological or emotional attachment to the Good Friday Agreement, to be pretty blunt, because it was not part of its development, post-Major, or of getting it to the point we are now. This has an implication in terms of how it sees Northern Ireland moving forward. I am very concerned about the lack of decisions. I have highlighted the policing board which, to me, is one of the biggest critical incidents facing Northern Ireland.

We are running out of a lot of successes of the peace process and policing is one of its headline successes. Many sacrifices were made by communities, the organisation itself and elected representatives to get us to a place where it is a largely representative and legitimate organisation associated with keeping people safe. However, we have not had a public meeting since December 2016, which is a disgrace with regard to where we are moving. I do not know what the logic is for not changing the legislation to put in place elected representatives and independent members, but we need to do something on policing because it is not sustainable. Issues relating to new officers, Brexit, crime and resources are all stacking up and we are not dealing with them. This is directly related to the Secretary of State. This is the big critical incident I see.

The issue of pay was also raised, and there are many other issues with regard to historic inquiries. There are far better academics on Brexit and rights, such as Dr. Katy Hayward, and they are better placed to answer questions on this.

Senator Ó Donnghaile is entirely right that, at times, academics have been a wee bit behind in the subject area. We have seen it on Brexit, where much of the evidence on its implications was lost in the narrative.

In the world we live in now, where people on Twitter and other social media try to convey their messages in 150 characters, evidence-based decision-making has gone out the window. I think academia has a role to play in counteracting that. The key is not to pitch it at a level that is too abstract for people to engage with. Academics have to be able to pitch at multiple levels, for example, through Twitter, Facebook, social media, blogs, newspaper articles and academic articles. They need to be able to articulate the same message at multiple levels so that everybody has access to information. We sometimes have a tendency to speak at a certain level. We need to be able to articulate. Universities are in a unique position, especially in Northern Ireland, because their gravitas and neutrality means they are able to approach some of this stuff without an agenda.