Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see everyone. Thankfully, many of my points follow on from the remarks of Deputy Howlin. We are kind of consistently saying the same sort of thing, which is good. That is the case across both jurisdictions. I found the previous engagement we had with the Committee for the Executive Office to be extremely useful and very important. I point out to Mr. McGrath and the Chairman that there is scope to formalise this and agree that this committee and the Committee for the Executive Office should meet at least once each quarter, with a set agenda to discuss these issues that impact all of our constituents on such a level. I have been speaking for a long time about the fact that the strand 3 institutions of the Good Friday Agreement need to be formalised, locked into the calendar and made non-negotiable. Is it feasible to get agreement for the two committees to meet on a quarterly basis to talk through the many issues we will have to discuss? We need to keep working at this. It is to be hoped that we will be able to do so in person in due course.

As regards the North-South Ministerial Council, our guests had a briefing from their junior Ministers in the past fortnight and one of the issues that came up was the attendance of Members of the Executive at the North-South Ministerial Council. How can we ensure that political boycotts, for want of a better term, are not allowed to get in the way of the full operation and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement? How can this committee hold our Ministers to account? I raised this issue with the Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday. What part are our guests playing in terms of holding Ministers in the North to account? These council meetings have nothing to do with wider politics but they have everything to do with the practical day-to-day lives of all our communities, such as people who take the train regularly from Belfast to Dublin, those from a farming background or whatever. These are vital areas. I was pleased that both the transport and enterprise ministerial meetings went ahead. It goes to the nub of the practical issues not just in the post-Brexit era, but the everyday issues that we need to discuss.

Tied to that, Mr. McGrath referred to a spider diagram. I was looking at it this morning before the meeting and it is another level of complexity. All one needs to do is put it into 23 working languages and all the bureaucracy comes flooding back. I do not wish to give Ms Anderson nightmares of former days in Brussels or Strasbourg. I refer to the role of the parliamentary party assembly and how we can ensure that the voice of citizens of Northern Ireland is still heard in that. Ms Anderson, Deputy Howlin and Barry Andrews, MEP, have touched on much of the work that can be done at governmental level and at observer level, but there is a need to ensure the voices of MLAs are heard in the structures that are there now. Members of this committee could be proxy voices in that regard.

My final point relates specifically to the protocol. This is the big issue that affects this island and on which we, as parliamentarians, need to work. The Government, Deputies, Senators and MEPs have a very specific role within the European Union to be the voice for common sense and flexibility on the ground with regard to ports of entry into Northern Ireland. It is very difficult to do that when the North-South Ministerial Council is not necessarily fully operational. On a parliamentary level, there are issues we need to consider. In two weeks' time, half a dozen of us will attend a meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union, COSAC. The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will be coming back in front of the committee. The Minister appeared before the committee just ten days ago and it was a really important session. We need to constantly push for that flexibility.

I appreciate that, on the flip side, Lord Frost stated yesterday that the protocol he negotiated and ratified is unworkable. That is a massive challenge. Where can we play that role to ensure that common sense comes into it within the EU? I know that common sense and Brexit do not exactly go hand in hand, but we have to try our best in that regard.