Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to Mr. Graham, I would point out that Seanad Éireann established a special committee on Brexit in 2020. It was retrospective and some asked, understandably, what was the point of it, given that the horse had bolted. We met delegations from around the world and from the EU, as referenced by Mr. Marshall. They wanted to meet the Brexit committee and were amazed to hear that we did not have such a committee to look at the impacts, potential risks and so on. While we do not necessarily have uniform agreement here on the outcome of this process, we are all agreed that we want to try to assist the dialogue, create a space and open it up to people.

We want it to try and create a space and open it up to people, hopefully, send a message, take everyone in good faith and reflecting what everyone has said to us in good faith and, hopefully, show that there is a space first of all and that people will engage. Many people have said one will not hear from this particular voice or section of society. The past couple of weeks have shown that one will. If we do anything, it will hopefully assist in necessarily informing some of that dialogue that here are different perspectives on different issues and then, when it comes to the bit, hopefully, down the line, that people can lift the work. Perhaps the Chair will reform this committee at a later stage, as we had to do with the Brexit committee. One never knows. We are all coming to it in good faith, with open ears and with a hope that we can assist the dialogue going forward.