Dr. Aoife Ní Lochlainn:

In answer to the question on what is the impact of the protocol on the work of our membership on our cross-border work, quite simply, and Dr. Soares has spoken about this, but it cannot be repeated often enough, with the protocol and the trade and co-operation agreement, TCA, there are now multiple committees involved in governance of the post-Brexit regulatory environment and this has led to huge fragmentation for advocacy. It is very difficult to understand the impact, especially in the Republic of Ireland, and to follow the work of these committees let alone to engage with them. One of the major problems, as Dr. Soares has said, is that we lack any resources to deal with this, to follow the work, to exchange information and to do the much-needed advocacy that we need to do North-South. That for us is one of the major problems. We have not been able to grapple with our new post-Brexit environment because we lack the resources and we lack the forums for engagement.