Lord Hain:

I thank the committee for this engagement. I strongly support informal contact and building personal relationships. The Chair mentioned the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, which is one example. When I was Secretary of State the personal relationships between the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was crucial to the progress made during Tony Blair's ten years of premiership on peace, on the Good Friday Agreement and on the 2007 settlement that brought Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness into shared power. We should not underestimate the importance of informal contacts. They seem to have ebbed away in recent years from Brussels to London, where trust is at the lowest ebb that I can remember in the last few decades. I also believe that trust between Dublin and London has been breached massively and frankly, personally I think that more than 90% of that is due to the behaviour of London. Given the history of relations between the UK and Ireland, I think it is crucial that we try to re-establish that trust.

Whether it is a case of parliamentarian-to-parliamentarian relationships, including those between Members of the European Parliament and those in Stormont, all of these relationships need to be developed.

Our committee heard evidence, which I favour and of which I took great note, that there would be a great benefit if Stormont Assembly members had direct relationships with Members of the European Parliament and Members of the Oireachtas. Similarly, it would be beneficial if the Northern Ireland Executive had a direct relationship with Brussels because the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council are responsible for regulations that apply in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland does not have any direct representation through its elected body and Ministers. There is a lot to be explored there.

The current circumstances might have been mitigated a little if the European Commission had had, and had been permitted to have, an office in Belfast and had there been a building of relationships on the ground and a better understanding north, south, east and west and with Brussels.