Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the presentation. It has been very helpful. The issue now is how can we build on that body of work to make sure we have the interaction between public representatives, but also officials, in Ireland and the UK. I note the recent visit of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, to London, which was the first significant visit in nearly 12 months. Owing to Covid-19 and the current circumstances in which we are living, and Brexit, there has been a real deficit of engagement between Westminster and Kildare Street.

Has that lack of engagement now become a big issue that we need to address in the short term? Do we need to formulate a plan directly to allow for the one-on-one meetings we spoke about or conversations among politicians and civil servants, which are vital? I do not believe there is a platform for this engagement at the moment. Fair enough, we are going through vaccination programmes on both sides of the Irish Sea but, logically, it will probably be next September before there can be physical engagement between Senators and Deputies and their counterparts in the UK. Is engagement in September too far away? Does work need to be done now to make sure we have that engagement?

Regarding what is happening in Northern Ireland, I was reading in the newspapers that protests are beginning again tonight. On Northern Ireland–Ireland engagement, how can we physically meet because of Covid? In many ways, this committee has done more than any other in the Houses of the Oireachtas in the past three months to have that engagement but it has been limited to some degree. Again, it will probably be next September before there is physical, one-on-one conversation. Are we in a really dangerous vacuum at the moment? Owing to that dangerous vacuum, the knock-on effect for our economies, societies and people is great. That is my great fear. There will be a six-month vacuum before we can have physical one-on-one engagement. Does Mr. O'Ceallaigh believe this will have a major knock-on effect on how we can deliver the peace we all talk about and the prosperity that will come off the back of it?