Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

Some of what was said is more for us to take away and reflect on, because there were some very interesting points.

Senator Blaney asked what the research and dialogues are for and raised the point about a citizens' assembly. In terms of the research, Professor Alan Ahearne, head of the ESRI, made two points when we launched the scoping papers yesterday, and they are very much the product of our discussions with the ESRI as well. One is that where jurisdictions are neighbouring, it is very common to do quite a lot of this type of research. There are many of the same factors in the delivery of social services, be it health, education and so forth, but there are different systems and, therefore, there are different outcomes in many instances. There can be a great deal of rich learning there in terms of understanding the factors that lead to good outcomes and how they impact on one another. That is one point.

The second point is that we all feel that there are opportunities for increased collaboration and connection that are as yet untapped. We can talk about them in broad-brush terms, but to understand them and to understand how to make them happen in a meaningful way requires much more research, in our view, certainly in areas such as public services or, indeed, understanding the economy. For example, in the case of the economy and Brexit, there is a huge focus on the goods trade on the island and the what the impact of Brexit might be on that, but far less on services. It is about understanding ourselves, how we work and how we do business, be it as a Government or in the enterprise sectors, and then looking at where that can be complementary. That is what is behind the research programme. We also see it very much informing Government policy choices and the discussions and dialogues.

As regards a citizens' assembly or other similar approaches, we believe the shared island dialogue approach is the right one now.

It has enabled us to reach out to a wide range of people. It is a different type of engagement to a citizens' assembly, which involves 100 people. Obviously, an assembly is quite representative but it is one set of 100 people. Our view was that what was more valuable was a more broad-based engagement and, in particular, a real ambition for us is to bring new voices to the table. That is not to take from the extraordinary commitment, expertise and insight of the many people who have been working on these issues for decades but if we are to talk meaningfully about our future on this island, then it must be a conversation that involves everyone. Again, I am not just speaking about both communities in Northern Ireland; I am also speaking about people this jurisdiction. As the Taoiseach said at one point, a conversation about what a shared island means is very different for a person in County Donegal than it is for someone in County Cork. It has quite a different meaning, perhaps. It is very different if someone is a migrant or from the Travelling community. What matters to a person when he or she talks about the future can be quite different. Thus, the objective here is to have those conversations. It is a phase. We will need to take stock after this round of shared island dialogues to see where we go next with them. In particular, as we make the transition, we all hope, from virtual meetings to meeting in person, that opens up a whole way of engagement which we are trying to think about now.

Apologies, I am probably going on a bit long. I thank Deputy Brendan Smith. His point about all the regions along the Border is very well made. We have engaged with the Irish Central Border Area Network, ICBAN, which is long-established in the Border region. As can be seen, some of the initiatives we are concretely moving on are in that region but it is a well-made point. Further and higher education is absolutely something we are doing quite a lot of work on. We are working very closely with the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and there is very strong commitment from it as well. Some of it might be partnerships between higher education institutions on either side of the Border. We too have had very good engagement with Letterkenny Institute of Technology. With some of it, we would look to see can there be more structured engagement, for example around building research links, etc. On the Deputy's point about how not enough students travelling to study both South to North and North to South, we are actually doing some work to try to understand why that is, what the obstacles are and what are the factors driving student choice. It would be of incalculable benefit into the future if there was a growing body of young people who had worked, studied, made friendships and learned South to North and North to South, as I said. It is certainly on our radar.