Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

I thank the Senator. Obviously, a new dimension, which the Senator highlighted, is that Seanad vote on a citizens' assembly, on which the Government will have to reflect.

I see Ms Hanna is now back in the meeting. The future of North-South co-operation is concerning. We are obviously in a period of somewhat unsettled politics at the moment. We need to see how that pans out in terms of both the formal work of the North-South Ministerial Council and broader co-operation and engagement around, as we always frame it, mutually beneficial North-South projects. Clearly, there is a concern at the moment and the politics around the North-South Ministerial Council have been mixed into the politics around the protocol in a way we would not agree has an actual connection. The North-South Ministerial Council is there as part of the agreed institutions under the Good Friday Agreement and it should operate on those terms. It is something we are watching very carefully and engaging with.

While some of the North-South Ministerial Council meetings have not happened and we have seen what is around that, there continues to be quite good engagement at official level. While I would not for a second imply that this is sufficient, it means we can keep going for the moment. It is not the answer but I would say there is still quite good engagement around a number of the areas at official level.