Ms Noelle O'Connell:

To clarify, "online" includes if people access, say, a newspaper online as well. It goes to the point as well that perhaps fewer hard copies of newspapers are being bought or fewer people are looking at different platforms, but it is the wider online use.

I do not know if, in all my years of having the honour of appearing before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs, I have ever been asked how it can support us, so I thank Senator O'Loughlin for that. I welcome that question. As she said, we are a team of 11 people. We have a fantastic stagiaire or internship programme. We also have a young intern from the University of Notre Dame for the summer. We are small in size but I like to think we are mighty in impact. On support from the committee, it gets requests from NGOs and civil society like us to engage in town hall meetings or to support and visit schools in the blue star programme, which is a fantastic primary school programme for engaging young people. I have spoken about the programme many times before this committee and I know it is one the members are all supportive of. That level of support is hugely important.

Also, as Ms Hayes and I have outlined, the threat to NGOs and civil society organisations as regards funding and engagement is real and alive. We represent and advocate on behalf of those who may not always feel their voices are heard. Therefore, in order for us to be supported and facilitated to do that, the committee's support is key.

Funding support is critical. We have our own multi-annual financial framework, MFF, like any other NGO or civil society organisation. What I have seen and encountered in more than 14 years of engaging on this issue is that, when key critical funding and support gets turned off for NGOs like ours, the decline in the level of support and sentiment and the challenges we face in combating misinformation and disinformation are all too real. We saw that with our counterparts across the Baltic and Balkan countries, so I am under no illusions about the importance of ongoing support from a State level in facilitating us to continue to represent and advocate and ensure important conversations are heard.

Deputy Butterly also asked me the question on enlargement. Absolutely, Ireland traditionally is one of the most pro-enlargement member states. We have seen consistently throughout our polling that that level of support has not wavered, notwithstanding the challenges. I hope something we will always be reminded of when we speak at different conferences and engage across Europe is how we are seen as an exemplar, a best-in-class model and a shining light of hope for accession and aspiring candidate countries. We should be very proud of that and not lose sight of it, especially during the Presidency.