Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

I will start with the Brexit-related question. The Government, not just politically but across relevant Departments, has been thinking on the benefits of the protocol and how we can articulate them. We have also engaged extensively with Northern Ireland businesses, encouraging them to look at and articulate the benefits. We are doing significant work in that area. My view is that if Northern Ireland businesses are articulating the benefits of the protocol, that is the optimal way to influence the politics of the protocol. In our engagement with Northern Ireland's ministers and at an official level, we make points about the benefits. Sometimes people use the phrase "the best of both worlds". I am not sure if that is helpful but the reality is that Northern Ireland has open access to the Single Market, which is what our messages focus on with regard to the trade and investment opportunities that it brings. As members know, the first thing that foreign investors typically look for is stability. There is not stability at the moment so there are potentially missed opportunities already.

Research will be done into increased levels of trade and what causes it, as well as what sectors it is in and what has driven the increase. The Central Statistics Office made the point that some of this relates to the different way of accounting for the level of trade on the island, so we need to examine the factors relating to that. Part of the idea behind commissioning the ESRI to work on services on the island was a view that there had been much focus on trade in goods and what Brexit meant for it and that we needed to look at the trade in services and what Brexit might mean for that, both to map where we are right now and what Brexit will change. Parts of that work are happening.

I take Ms Gildernew's point about the road. There is an all-Ireland strategic rail unit, which was launched by the Northern Ireland Minister, Nichola Mallon, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. There is a full North-South review. Consultants have been employed for that rail review. The work began in September. The review outcome is expected to be in about a year. It is comprehensive. The original, early versions of it might just have looked at Dublin to Belfast, or Belfast to Dublin and Cork. It is now comprehensive. It addresses rail connectivity for passengers and transit.

Can I come back separately about post-primary education? There are many knotty issues to address. It can seem logical and I can see why. I will come back separately about that.

We are not looking at a citizens' assembly. This dialogue series is inclusive, as I mentioned earlier, reaching more than 1,000 people at this point. We think it is the right approach right now. As the committee knows, the shared island initiative is focused on building connectivity in every sense, including physical, between businesses, socially and between communities. Our focus is on building that now. As the Taoiseach said, this Dáil is not looking at the prospect of a Border poll. Our mandate is what we had in the programme for Government.

This is a personal comment. We are probably at a phase where being inclusive and bringing more people into the conversation is the better place to be. A citizens' assembly is a different exercise. The model we have here involves 100 people. There are other models too. This inclusive phase is where we need to be at present. I will ask Mr. Duffy to address the climate issue because much work has been done on the dialogue and in the NESC report.

I hear what Ms Begley is saying about the A5. That €75 million has been on the books as a commitment for many years because we have not been able to progress to actually doing the A5. I have said in this committee before that the shared island fund would look at a contribution to the A5 but in budgetary terms we cannot do that until the project moves on and comes closer to being shovel-ready.

I flag to the committee, not with a political decision behind me but with logic, that of course we would be interested in the A5 and would want to be supportive of it, including in funding terms, beyond what is already committed. It needs to be at a phase where we are actually looking at being able to disperse funding. Regardless of whether we put more money on the table at this point, it does not change the dynamics around planning applications and the environmental issues. I ask Mr. Duffy to say something on the climate and biodiversity.