Dr. Stephen Farry:

It is great to see Ms O'Donoghue and Mr. Duffy again. I believe there is scope for much greater practical co-operation on the island, notwithstanding and without prejudice to whatever may happen on political and constitutional issues. Much more can be done even on a stand-alone basis.

I wish to record my deep disappointment and concern at the current approach of the DUP to North-South co-operation, which is an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement. If an effective sustained boycott emerges, it will be very damaging to everyone's mutual interest, including to the social, economic and environmental welfare of the people of Northern Ireland. Co-operation in areas such as health is of intrinsic importance to people's lives.

I appreciate my questions may slightly cut across areas that are the responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs and I apologise in advance if I do that. I want to flag up four different areas. I echo the comments Deputy Brendan Smith made earlier on about education, particularly further and higher education, which is an area that is significantly underdeveloped.

Given that we are all mindful of the importance of addressing climate change, whatever we do on climate change policy both North and South in areas like renewable deals, it is important that we try to co-ordinate those as much as possible to try to find economies of scale that would be of mutual benefit. Of course, the environment does not respect borders in any event. That is an obvious area to highlight.

I wish to highlight two further points arising from Brexit. They are not necessarily part of the wider UK-EU negotiations but go to the area of North-South co-operation. The first relates to the mutual recognition of professional qualifications. Progress has been made on a bilateral basis, but that is largely happening between the respective professional bodies rather than necessarily being an overarching approach. I think only about ten or a dozen areas have been agreed so far. I would like to get a sense of where things stand in that regard.

During 2017 and 2018 a very extensive mapping exercise was conducted as part of the preparations for Brexit relating to areas of North-South co-operation. I believe about 140 areas were identified. Is any work going on to audit where we stand on all those areas post-Brexit? What areas are running satisfactorily and what areas are being significantly impacted? We need to identify in a more systematic way areas where some degree of remedial action is required to protect the co-operation we had previously, before we consider new areas of co-operation.