Ms Claire Hanna:

I thank the Chair and the witnesses. It has been a really interesting conversation. It is good that they are so technically engaged in all those issues, particularly the cross-Border tax. Colum Eastwood and I met with the group before. It is important generally to guard against borderism, wherever it comes from, and barriers to trade and life on the island, and to realise the big opportunity of people changing how they want to work and live after the pandemic. There are real regeneration opportunities from the north west as a result of people being able to work remotely and live there. I agree entirely on that. I also agree about the importance of the rail review. Nothing more nakedly lays out the impact of partition and under-investment in the west and north west generally than looking at the rail map. It is crucial for connectivity and the economy of the future. It is a really important piece of work by the two Ministers, so I am really glad that the witnesses are on to it.

I do not want to go over what colleagues have already raised. Two specific questions flow from the Brexit outworkings. We do not anticipate that the grace periods will end any time soon. We hope that the level of checking is as unobtrusive as it can be into the future but we know that there will have to be some checks. Are the witnesses still operating with temporary infrastructure in its checking capacity? Are there issues around that and the installation and provision of more permanent infrastructure in relation to any protocol and post-Brexit checks that have to be made?

We were discussing how workforce and access to people is so critical to businesses and the dynamism of the region. I do not know the whole ETA issue and EU nationals and other non-British and Irish citizens requiring electronic certification to cross the Border. That has a potential to be absolutely devastating to many. It creates a border for different categories of citizens. One can see many ways by which it would impede businesses in the movement of their own human resources and have huge impacts for tourism with all the visitors who go north but arrive in through Dublin. Is that something that is on the witnesses' radar or have they any thoughts on this?

There are different views on the potential free port concept. What are the witnesses views? How would it work for the region?