Dr. Stephen Farry:

I welcome Mr. Holder and Ms Boyd. Most the things about the ETA issue have probably been said. I will make a few points to which Mr. Holder or Ms Boyd may wish to respond. I have been assured by the Department of Foreign Affairs that it is very much seized of this issue and that it is a priority for it. I think representations have been made to the Home Office. It is still a work in progress. I fear the Bill will go through Parliament. The House of Lords is largely a revising chamber. It is very difficult for it to overturn and defeat legislation. As for the amendments, we expect the Bill to come back to the House of Commons sometime in March and we will keep pushing in that regard. It remains to be seen whether Margaret Ritchie's re-tabling of the amendment will get through on Report Stage in the House of Lords, but that will probably be the trigger for any pushback in the House of Commons. I suspect, however, that with an easy majority, the Conservative Party will ram the Bill through and maybe ping-pong with the House of Lords for a few sessions but, ultimately, push ahead with this.

If I may add to the potential implications of this one additional implication that has been drawn to my attention in respect of healthcare, if we end up with some good cross-Border collaboration on healthcare allocation, we could see ambulances from Northern Ireland picking up people in southern Ireland and taking them to hospitals in Northern Ireland because they are the closest available. Those patients will have no opportunity whatsoever to apply for any ETA in that regard, given their situation. That is just one more aspect to add to this.

I also wish to ask about the common travel area. Concerns have been raised by, I think, the committee and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission about the fact that the CTA is still essentially a mix of some legislation but largely conventions held by the two Governments. We have the revised memorandum of understanding but do the witnesses think there is a case for putting the CTA on a formal treaty basis between the UK and Ireland, properly embedding the rights contained therein and providing people with much greater surety in that regard?

Finally, regarding the legacy issue, do the witnesses have any comment as to what may be holding up the current Bill? Not that we are in any rush to see bad legislation come forward. There is the practical issue that we are expecting a Queen's speech in the House of Commons soon and a new session of Parliament. There seems to be some tension within the UK Government on the issue of compelling people to co-operate with any so-called truth recovery body put in place. I appreciate that that falls far short of Article 2 compliance, but do the witnesses have any comment to make on that controversy in its very limited sense?