Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Ahern for being here. I also wish to acknowledge his contribution to the Good Friday Agreement and as he recognised, the contribution of everybody involved. It is a good opportunity for us today to look at this. One thing struck me earlier this morning in Glencree, when we were talking to the Portuguese President. He made the point that peace is always a process and this is a process on which we are still working now, albeit that we all want to work in a more focused way. Obviously, the implementation deficit of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements cause the problems they do. The Good Friday Agreement itself and the joint declaration set out the agreement to establish a charter of rights for the island of Ireland, which has not been done. Could Mr. Ahern speak to how that might be done? What role could he see the Irish Government playing now in doing that?

I want to ask about further and higher education. For the first time, we now have in the Higher Education Authority Act 2022 explicit provision for North-South further and higher education co-operation. We carried out a student mobility report recently because of how important student mobility in further and higher education is for opportunities across the island for embedding the peace process.

If we have time, Mr. Ahern might touch on the opportunity cost of Brexit. How far advanced does he think we could be if it were not for all of the attention, resources and everything else being taken away in trying to deal with Brexit?