Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and I thank the Centre for Cross Border Studies for the work it is doing. I am delighted to learn more about what it is doing, its aims and objectives. Many speakers have talked about the political context. It seems it is not very good and that that is very detrimental to the centre's work on the issues of the Northern Ireland protocol and the threat to invoke Article 16. I admire the witnesses' statements that they are going to just get on with it and continue to work together.

I have two questions. Has there been any feedback to date from the civic society organisations, in particular farmers and businesses, on the benefits of the Northern Ireland protocol and how that might be good for the economy of Northern Ireland? In the witnesses' interactions with their members, has that come up for discussion? My second question is in regard to the shared island initiative brought forward by the Taoiseach and supported by the Government of Ireland, which aims to promote dialogue in the context of the notion of a shared island. Under that initiative, there have been a number of seminars and conferences to date with various themes. The intention is to have these themed seminars, whether in regard to young people, women's issues, environmental issues, business and so on. I would welcome the witnesses' views on that initiative. Are they interacting with it and do they believe it is beneficial?