Lord Jay of Ewelme:

I thank the Chair and committee members for the invitation to be with you today. I am the chair of the House of Lords committee on the protocol on Ireland-Northern Ireland. I previously served as a member of the House of Lords European Union committee, which had since the EU referendum in 2016 conducted intensive scrutiny of the implementation of Brexit for Northern Ireland and Ireland. I was pleased, in the context of that work, to visit the Oireachtas on a number of occasions, and to have met many Members. It is a real pleasure to be with them again.

Following the UK withdrawal from the EU and the end of the transition period, the term of appointment of the EU committee came to an end on 31 March this year. The House of Lords appointed in its place a new European affairs committee, to scrutinise all aspects of the UK-EU relationship. In view of the technically complex and politically sensitive provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol, the House of Lords also agreed to appoint a committee to scrutinise all aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol, as a sub-committee to the European affairs committee. Both committees began their work in April.

The protocol committee includes a wide range of views and expertise, as the Chair rightly said, both on Northern Ireland and on the protocol itself. Our membership includes senior representatives of political parties in Northern Ireland, including former party leaders and deputy leaders, from both unionist and nationalist perspectives. It draws on wider expertise in the House of Lords, including a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a former specialist adviser to successive Secretaries of State, and a former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. Many of these voices are represented in our delegation today. My colleagues will introduce themselves the first time they speak. I should add that Lord Empey had hoped to participate today but had to withdraw at the last moment.

The committee has identified six core tasks within its remit: document-based scrutiny of new or amended EU legislation within the scope of the protocol that will apply to Northern Ireland; scrutiny of the implications of relevant domestic UK legislation and policy for Northern Ireland in relation to the protocol; scrutiny of the Northern Ireland-related work of the governance bodies established under the UK-EU withdrawal agreement, including the joint committee, the Ireland-Northern Ireland specialised committee and the joint consultative working group; monitoring the protocol’s political and socioeconomic impact on Northern Ireland; reviewing the ongoing impact of the protocol, and of UK withdrawal from the EU more broadly, on the UK-Ireland bilateral relationship; and developing interparliamentary dialogue in relation to the protocol, including with the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Oireachtas.

The committee has identified monitoring the protocol’s political and socioeconomic impact on Northern Ireland as its key initial priority. To that end, we have launched an introductory inquiry into the current state of play on the protocol, taking account of developments since it came into force on 1 January 2021. Over the past few weeks, we have heard oral evidence from business leaders, community and civic society representatives, academic and legal experts and political commentators. We also have received a range of written evidence, including from businesses, political parties, and the ambassador of Ireland in London. Tomorrow, the European affairs committee will hear evidence from the EU ambassador to the UK. On 14 July 2021, in our final session for this inquiry, we will hear from Lord Frost, on behalf of the UK Government. We aim to publish our report at the end of July. We will then take forward more detailed scrutiny of individual issues in the autumn, taking full account of political developments in the meantime.

Today’s meeting is a welcome opportunity to strengthen interparliamentary dialogue between the Oireachtas and Westminster, and between our two committees. I hope that we will be able to build on this engagement in the coming months including, as Covid-19 restrictions ease – we hope - by meeting in person, both in Dublin and in London. We look forward to answering your questions about our work. We hope also to have the opportunity to ask you about the perspective in the Oireachtas and in Ireland more broadly, on the protocol, on political developments in Northern Ireland and on evolving UK-EU and UK-Ireland relations.