Dr. Aoife Ní Lochlainn:

I thank the Deputy for the question. The short answer to the question is "Yes". The current issues around the protocol, in particular the suspension of the North-South Ministerial Council work, has definitely impeded co-operation on environmental issues on the island of Ireland. There is no doubt about that. My role in the Irish Environmental Network and the environmental pillar is to develop North-South environmental co-operation in the NGO sector. The environmental NGOs in the Republic of Ireland and colleagues in Northern Ireland work together to advocate for those all-island environmental solutions mentioned, such as climate change, biodiversity, habitat protections, the marine, etc. We also work on joint research projects and our individual member groups, of which there are many across the country, work with each other on specific environmental cross-Border protection projects and on issues such as cross-Border dumping, illegal waste, etc.

As part of that cross-Border co-operation, we have collaborated with our opposite number in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Environment Link, to produce a report which identified the main risks to the environmental integrity of the island posed by Brexit. This report was published in 2019. Members are probably all familiar with the risks identified, as I know the report was discussed by various committees, but it highlighted the risks of regulatory divergence, the loss of those supernational governance structures of the EU and our ability to engage with the new governance structures. While the trade and co-operation agreement and the protocol have partially mitigated these risks, they are not fully mitigated. The solution advocated at the time by the environmental pillar and Northern Ireland Environmental Link, was that the Good Friday Agreement bodies should step into that lacuna and take up some of the cross-Border work. With the political situation being what it is, that work is not happening. This is detrimental to work on policy issues on which we are behind in our work. As we are here today to discuss civil society engagement, it is important to point out that even when functioning as designed the Good Friday Agreement bodies are impenetrable to most of civil society. They are highly diplomatic processes and NGOs such as ourselves have very few routes to engagement on the matters under discussion within those bodies.

Colleagues here today have spoken about how engagement with civil society needs to come from both sides of the Border. If we are to have the type of cross-Border co-operation which I mentioned our membership engage with, we need to ensure there are structures and mechanisms for them to engage with. Without those structures, as mentioned by Ms Farrell, there is a real risk that the co-operation, enthusiasm and opportunity will fall away. That would be to everybody's detriment. The engagement needs to be inclusive of all civil society sectors, including the NGOs in the Republic of Ireland. Much of the conversation around the protocol has neglected the cross-Border co-operation element in civil society. It has focused, understandably, on democratic deficits in Northern Ireland. We are here today to talk about how NGOs in the Republic of Ireland can be better brought into those processes into the future.