Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

I was wondering why Ms Hanna was wearing a mask. I did not realise she was in the airport. On the point she raised at the end about our level of engagement and traction in some of the communities, there is no doubt that the last year has made that more difficult. As she knows even better than me, it is difficult for us to have a conversation in Northern Ireland at present where the protocol is not the first part of that conversation. It creates challenges and obstacles in those communities to engage with us. It has been a more challenging backdrop than we had hoped. As I said previously, we have engagement across the community in Northern Ireland in the dialogues. We also have had some low-key type of conversations, but I must say that getting through to some of those communities has been, and continues to be, challenging against the backdrop of the protocol or, perhaps I should say, against the backdrop of the noise that has been created around the protocol. We will keep at it. Also, and this refers back to the point I made earlier, we are not the only show in town. We work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The reconciliation fund has access, as do the International Fund for Ireland and the PEACE programme. We are not isolated from what others are doing. From my point of view, if some element of us is in there that is important and valuable.

As regards deprivation, that is a very important point. We are still working through that a little. The Taoiseach has spoken on a number of occasions about issues relating to deprivation and educational underachievement, but those are areas where, frankly, we would need a great deal of collaboration and collaborative working with the Northern Ireland Executive and relevant Departments. That is something that has not proved possible in some areas. Mr. Duffy might wish to speak on this because he has been more hands-on on some of the outreach and engagement.