Mr. Stephen Douds:

I thank the Chairman for that eloquent and efficient summation of some of the points made by me and others. It is much appreciated. The short answer is "Yes", there are enough safe spaces. There is a multiplicity of safe spaces and forums. Interestingly, in the past year and a half, as a result of Covid, we have moved online many of our debate seminar events. Oddly, one of the few positives of holding such events online is that one is able to draw together for events on Zoom people who possibly would not otherwise come together to meet face to face. There is no opportunity to continue the debate afterwards over a glass of wine and have social relations, but there certainly is the opportunity to bring together people who would not otherwise participate. People can express their own identities.

One of the events we ran online in February was chaired by Professor Katy Hayward of Queen's University Belfast, who will be known to many of the committee. It was a new voices initiative at which we asked some recently elected politicians from both jurisdictions to speak about issues that were common to them. I know many of the committee members will remember being recently elected to the Dáil or to local authorities. Even in February, at a time when debate on the protocol was at its height, there was a different DUP leader and the political parties on the unionist side of the benches in Stormont were urging very little co-operation, we were able to have a Sinn Féin Deputy from County Cork, along with members of the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party at local authority level, share experiences that were common to them. By and large, our organisation stays away from the political space, but when we stepped into that space it was relatively straightforward to ask people to debate common concerns as politicians working in both jurisdictions against the backdrop of Brexit and the protocol. This is the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs and committee members know those factors have definitely changed the context in which people work.

I had not thought of the example of Canada in this context. I thank the Chairman for that suggestion. Through family connections, I am much more familiar with Switzerland as a place much closer to us in Europe, although not a member of the EU, where different strands of culture, identity and social relations have managed to live together. I am happy to consider the issue and perhaps speak to the Canadian representation in Dublin to learn more about that.