Professor Colin Harvey:

This has become very important in the current context in the North. As many members will be aware, a major conference will take place at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast next weekend. The event is called Ireland's Future and it will address some of these issues. People read paragraph 52 extensively and thought that a more expansive vision of EU citizens' rights was coming along, but since then they have seen that debate sidelined, diluted or lacking in clarity. As Mr. Allamby and others have said, that situation needs to be clarified urgently in the context of the politics of Northern Ireland. People had an expectation from what was contained in the joint report and there has been a lack of follow through or clarity. If that is an issue of sequencing or staging, and maybe that will come in the next stage of discussions on the future relationship or the common travel area, then people need to know that. People read paragraph 52 of the joint report and interpreted it to mean more than their having the same EU rights as an Irish citizen in New York or wherever. People thought the paragraph meant more would be available, and there is a large measure of disappointment that this has not been followed through. Maybe work is being done and arrangements are being discussed in terms of that matter. If so, we need to know. Perhaps clarity will come in the next phase but the issue has taken on a note of urgency.