Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Clancy and Mr. O'Kane for attending the meeting. It is fantastic to hear about the fintech opportunities that are developing. It is a great body of employment to be developed. It is what is needed. I have two questions. Will Mr. Clancy outline the different experience, sector by sector, of the protocol over the last 12 months? When the committee was in the North the members met different political colleagues from Northern Ireland and they gave us quite a mixed picture, sector by sector, of how people were experiencing it. Some had no difficulty and some had great difficulty. Perhaps we could get a sense of that from Mr. Clancy on behalf of his members. That would be very helpful for the committee.

Second, will Mr. O'Kane outline the experience business leaders and business owners have had in respect of the quality of the communication of the British Government directly with business on some of the complex issues that are emerging both in legislation and with the protocol and how that is going? Yesterday, there was a significant decision that affects Irish exporters with the change to the 1 January rules. That came on 14 December and, while welcome, it was not particularly timely. I am interested in how that direct communication is going. I will give the reason. One of the things we hear a great deal is how difficult everything is and would be for business in Northern Ireland as a consequence of the difficulties in the protocol, but I am not hearing anything or enough from the British Government about the opportunities created by the particular situation given to business in Northern Ireland. I wonder if, privately, there has been more communication on that to businesses in Northern Ireland than there has been publicly.