Ms Sinéad Gibney:

Perhaps I can start with some comments and then hand over to my colleagues. In short, we believe the common travel area needs to be strengthened in legislation. As Mr. Allamby alluded to, at the moment, it is a set of agreements that we believe are not strong enough for what we are currently facing. As the Brexit process has unfolded and we have seen threats to the rule of law, it underpins that we need a very clear legislative footing for the common travel area.

As the Chairman identified, the other issues relating to that are the challenges faced by those citizens in Ireland who are not UK or Irish citizens and are, therefore, not covered by the common travel area, and the threat to their freedoms. That is definitely an area of concern.

Along with the cross-Border movement, the other issue I would raise is the potential for racial profiling. I am going to let my colleagues talk to the committee about the protocol. However, as Senator Ó Donnghaile said, the all-island charter was not acted upon following the Good Friday Agreement. I believe the priorities at the moment, particularly of my northern counterparts, have to be around dealing with the dedicated mechanism. I see no reason, however, this could be revisited in the future as a potential mechanism to strengthen the equivalence of rights on the island.

I will hand over to Mr. Allamby and Ms McGahey.