Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation and for all their work in this area. I came across a number of quotes many years ago by a colleague of theirs, Dr. John Bradley, and I thought they were very appropriate to the discussion we are having. One related to the lack of facts. He said that in Northern Ireland, along with everything else being disputed, even the economic facts are disputed. The witnesses have touched on the difficulty of not having good data and facts. They are trying to manoeuvre those and see how to get those together, from which we make policy. Without the facts and the data, policy cannot be made.

I will also quote John Bradley on this next point, which is related to the last point. He said that policy neglect seldom goes unpunished. The witnesses referred to that in respect of the national risk assessment and the plan and the fact there was no mention of the issue of a united Ireland, in any real sense, in the assessment. Do they have a view on that? Scottish independence having an impact on Northern Ireland was mentioned in the national risk assessment. Now the assessment structure is being changed; I think they are trying to do it every second year. Do the witnesses have any views around having it mentioned in the national risk assessment? That may be of no real value unless there is a plan around what to do with it. A global pandemic has been mentioned in the assessment every year since it started, I think a decade ago, yet when it came, no one was ready. Policy neglect seldom goes unpunished.

I will ask the even tougher question. If we were to create a plan, how long would it take? Depending on what in the plan could be implemented, how long would it take to implement all those plans? We must bear in mind that we have no control over the calling of a referendum. That is the first part. We do not set the date. It is set by the British Government. One would imagine that it would be done in consultation with the Irish Government but we literally do not have any control over that. We have seen the consequences of an unplanned referendum with Brexit but this is an entirely different situation.

Was it a surprise to the witnesses, bearing in mind that it was not in the national risk assessment, that there was no mention of there ever being a possibility of this in the national development plan? Project Ireland 2040 had no planning for it at all. The year 2040 is a long way away even by my standards. There was no mention in the NDP of the scale of the one that was launched by the Government, of the possibility that there would ever be a referendum that would have such an impact. Is it of concern to the witnesses, given what they would be aware of within the Departments, that there is no plan for an event which we have no control over when it is called?

Some people have commented on this. Bertie Ahern and others have said that there will be a referendum within ten years. If there was a referendum within ten years from where we are now, how well prepared are we? I know a lot of this would be down to funding. Have lessons been learned from the only similar case in our lifetime, namely, that of Germany? That is entirely different in so many ways but then there are never going to be two that are the same. Cyprus is another example but again it is entirely different. The only relationship regarding Cyprus is that we are both in the European Union. There are similar issues with regard to how we got divided-----