Dr. Anthony Soares:

I am aware my colleague, Mr. Quinn, is leaving shortly to attend an important initiative. In case he has to disappear in the next few minutes, I will deal with some of those issues quickly. As for Covid and the supports thereon, in addition to Covid public health restrictions and how they were implemented on either side of the Border, these are common issues. We work with European partners in border regions across Europe. They face the same issues in terms of the timing of the imposition of public health restrictions on either side of a border, the lifting of public health restrictions, the different types of supports made available to their citizens and how that affects cross-border workers. These are common issues that have been felt to varying degrees across European Union borders. We have seen this at first hand with our own Border. It is highlighted to us especially through our flagship Border People project in respect of which we are grateful for the support of various stakeholders, including the North-South Ministerial Council's joint secretariat. We have seen this at first hand with citizens who live at borders or have to cross our Border for work or other purposes. They are the people who always fall between the cracks and have to deal with the differentials in timing and supports. Sometimes it is a minefield and they have to scramble around for the correct information. In that regard, our Border People project tries to signpost the correct direction.

On the taxation issue, I am sure the members are aware of the work of the Cross-Border Workers Coalition. It has been highlighting the taxation issue, which had existed previously and is not a new issue. It is simply that the onset of Covid and the changes to how we work, including the move to remote working, have focused a light on that particular issue. The Cross-Border Workers Coalition is doing great work. It has been engaging with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in trying to address this issue and seeing what the impacts of resolving that issue would be.

We would support them in that and we would encourage all sides to find a solution. It would not be that difficult to find.

In terms of engagement with the Government Ministers, I will briefly reply and then I will hand over to my colleagues. The ad hocgroup has had very good engagement with Ministers, but also with officials. We would like to really thank officials on the Irish Government side, particularly the officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs who have engaged with us on various occasions, and also the shared island unit. Also, as individual organisations, to varying extents we have engagements with Ministers in Northern Ireland, and in the Republic of Ireland as well. We are really grateful for that engagement, but it is just the nature of that engagement and what it leads to that is the question. I will hand over to my colleagues.