Ms Claire Hanna:

Like others, I warmly welcome the unit, particularly the tone and approach over these first few months. It has got off to a really good start in terms of a work programme and looking at the practicalities and opportunities of uniting infrastructure and people across the island because it is fair to say that those were opportunities that were hard worked into the agreement but were not always realised. There has been much focus on the when of synchronisation across the island rather than on the why and the how. I look forward to seeing what the unit can produce in that regard. People have covered all of the different areas relating to infrastructure, sustainability and health. There is a real need to synchronise the two economies. It is stunning how different they are and the different opportunities they provide workers with. Some of that will be about waiting for the dust to settle from Brexit, which will inevitably create a recalibration over the next couple of years. While the unit cannot drive a large amount of that economic regeneration, it can certainly pump-prime it in terms of investment by the Government. I very much welcome the fact that it seems to be a moveable feast as in the unit is still looking for projects rather than a closed shop.

Senator Currie asked about areas I intended to explore in terms of the research unit. The witnesses have set out the position in that regard. Some of the value of the New Ireland Forum in the 1980s was related to putting good authoritative facts and figures into the public discourse. This is very welcome.

There are just so many questions about challenges and opportunities that we do not really know what we are dealing with. As I said, a lot of that is in flux because of Brexit; we cannot even calculate some of the basics. It is also because of Covid and the radically different patterns of spending that is creating, as well as, for example, change prompted by climate, but that will be a really valuable part of the project.

I ask about the dialogue and engagement strand, which is really exciting and, again, seems to be very much in the right place regarding some of the demographics identified and even already brought in with the Taoiseach's speech. I wanted to ask as well about harder to reach people and some of the opportunity that Covid maybe provides because we are talking about online engagement. I worked on a project for an international NGO years ago about trying to get research from all sorts of people, and the driving thing was what if the cure to malnutrition was locked in the mind of somebody who could not afford an education? In the same way, what if the answers to some of these issues are locked in the mind of somebody who is not part of a union of students or is not part of an identified demographic? The fact we are going to be talking online really does potentially open things up. Looking at the likes of the Citizens' Assemblies and the Citizens’ Convention on UK Democracy, their value was in the fact that it was kind of random, it did reach people who, as somebody else said, did not and are not necessarily those who put their hand up every time. Is that something the officials have perhaps worked into their plan? Obviously some of the responses are mad, but looking at the Scottish Government, it is harnessing some of this technology for everyday policy questions, literally throwing it open to the floor. While there is some work in curating it and not all of the submissions will reach the next stage, is that something the officials can build on, really opening the dialogue to the crowds and to people who are not politically engaged in one or the other groups that might be reached or found by the project?