Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. We appreciate that we have been give factual information, rational arguments and evidence-based findings. As practising politicians, we appreciate that having regard to the situation on these islands.

I have three brief questions which, hopefully, can be answered briefly. Deputy Howlin made a brief reference to evidence related to trade flows. Is it too early to be definitive about trade flows between Great Britain and Ireland, east-west, and between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, both ways? What are the headline figures so far in relation to trade flows as a result of Brexit?

We have all been following British politics very closely over the last few months and listening to all the arguments and the different factions within the Conservative Party. To what extent has Brexit been responsible for the economic woes of Great Britain at this time? People like to think that Brexit is totally responsible and allow themselves a wry smile that the British have got themselves into these difficulties. Britain is suffering from declining economic growth and inflation, the markets are spooked and there are public finances issues and so on. To what extent can these problems be traced to Brexit solely or was that just a contributing factor?

Professor Shirlow mentioned the shared island initiative twice, the need for the peace dividend, the role of civic society, the decline in violence and the grants for the universities. How important is the shared island initiative? It is a new initiative and it took a while for all of us to get our heads around it and to see what it is trying to do. We appreciate there is a lot of hard work involved in that, much harder work than mere sloganeering. How important is the shared island initiative given what has been outlined in relation to what needs to be done?