Dr. Alan Barrett:

It is a very interesting question, which prompts several thoughts. The Senator asked the question specifically in the context of the protocol and trade and it is clear there are implications there, but what has come about in the past year or two is an increased discussion in respect of the shared island, if I can use that phrase, or on an all-island basis. As everyone in the room will be aware, discussing environmental and climate issues even at a national level does not make a lot of sense as these are global issues. However, it is certainly the case that the craziness of discussing issues such as climate and biodiversity on a 26-county basis and a six-county basis has been emerging more strongly. That was presented most starkly to the ESRI in the context of an environmental model we started developing - obviously, we have been doing economic modelling for the Twenty-six Counties for many years - that linked macroeconomics in the Twenty-six Counties or the State of Ireland to greenhouse gas emissions. It was pointed out what a limited way of looking at this issue that is, that we should be looking at it, at least, on a 32-county basis. We really should be thinking about issues such as biodiversity, water quality and a host of other environmental issues on a 32-county basis. I do not know if it is an effect of Brexit or the shared island unit or another matter, but we in the ESRI are certainly being prompted much more to think about those sort of issues on that basis. Of course, whatever about the political sensitivities, North and South, everybody can agree that it is much more sensible to consider matters such as water quality and biodiversity on a 32-county basis. We are trying to do our bit in terms of the analysis and the modelling on that sort of a basis. Our job then is to feed those results into the policy sphere. For us, that normally involves feeding them into the policy sphere in Dublin, be that through the Oireachtas or Departments or whatever, but we are certainly trying to up our game in informing Northern Ireland policymakers as well to bring greater rationality to it. That is not a direct answer to the Senator's question but I hope she will appreciate that it is prompting interesting thoughts more generally.