Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Howlin said, it is worth having some sort of information in front of us. In the last question-and-answer session, the witnesses dealt with some of this. They could probably do a deep dive on any of the individual issues raised. There are probably 14 supplementary questions, but I do not know whether someone is going to sit and do that work for three hours. I would really appreciate if they did. We probably need more detail on some of these questions.

Polling figures for the North are considerably higher in terms of what is generally required there compared with what is required here. A number of extra bases are being covered and there are demographic factors, or whatever term you want to use. Is a sample size of 1,200 sufficient?

I do not think anyone is shocked by the question on whether Ireland should remain a member of the EU. We have had a very fairly decent example of what leaving the EU leads to. Another question was whether the EU is moving in the right direction. If the questions had stopped there, we would all have said that the follow-up questions relate to everything, with migration at the top of the list at the moment.

I refer to the disgraceful way Ursula von der Leyen entered the conversation on Gaza. While the Governments of Ireland, Spain and others have been positive and have pushed in a particular direction, we have not seen the actions we would like to have seen. It has been stated that the thing the EU does best is trade. Until we something happens regarding the human rights conditions in the EU-Israel association agreement, it is very difficult for anybody to state that the EU is doing what needs to be done. I would have expected there would be unease about the question on whether the EU is going in the right direction.

On where the EU's performance is strongest, Europe and the EU is that far away from people. The witnesses said that in the right environment they would have expected the percentage to be higher. It can also relate to where they see the environment and how important it is. There have definitely been failings across Europe, domestically and at an international level. People will go with the headline figures on where they see failures. There is a criss-cross between what is domestic and what is international.

Deputy Howlin dealt with the issue of a united Ireland and the question on whether people think they will see it in the next ten years. That question had to be asked at the minute, but there is also a belief that we will only see this happen if someone is going to do the preparatory work. There could be four supplementary questions asked, including whether people want to see it, think it is viable or possible or whether the Government is doing enough to prepare for even the possibility of it. I could give my own answers on that, but I think the witnesses could work them out.

I will be delighted to see an 88% turnout in the European and local elections. That is positive.

There is that notion as well, even when talking to people, that there will be issues as to whether some of them will be registered and all the rest. It is good, however, that they start from the view that voting is important across the board. We have to work on the system we have to facilitate as many as possible. That is likely to be beyond the witnesses' remit at this time.

The relationship the North has with the EU could mean 14 different things. Someone could be quite happy to have less of a relationship and might see that as a good thing, whereas others will see a democratic deficit and whatever else.

More countries joining the EU has probably changed shape, even over the past two years. This is getting into the big one, so to speak. In talking about the EU's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, defence and about where the Americans are, everyone is coming at that in a different way. There was huge solidarity and that is really good, but it is almost the supplementary questions that are needed regarding where people are at on all of it. Regarding US involvement in defence co-operation, again people will have varying views on all of that. I agree with Deputy Howlin in relation to-----