Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

I have another comment in relation to Northern Ireland having the best of all possible worlds, access to both the UK internal market and the EU's Single Market. We take on board the point made that not enough is being done to attract investment or to highlight the advantages of the Windsor Framework from the point of view of investing in Northern Ireland. That point is well made.

Have the witnesses any statistics on trade flows between east-west, north-south, all different directions? That may be something we can get separately. Maybe we could get a summary of how things have gone since Brexit and the negotiation of the Windsor Framework as well. Have there been any significant changes in trade flows? The witnesses are not expected to have the information. We could probably get it somewhere else. However, I would be interested in anecdotal evidence of that.

The second question is on the political aspects of the various agreements, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the Windsor Framework, and the withdrawal agreement before that, engagement with ministers between the UK, Northern Ireland and Ireland, engagement of civil servants and so forth. The witnesses mentioned the EU-UK specialised committee. In their experience, do they think that is working and that the committees are functioning and doing what they are supposed to do? I know there are various committees and it is quite complicated having regard to the various agreements but we can start with the EU-UK specialised committee.

The third question relates to Article 18, which was mentioned. That has to be ratified by the Northern Ireland Assembly. Is that something the witnesses are actively campaigning on? What is the feedback they are getting? The political situation has stabilised and obviously they are hopeful that that will be ratified. What are they doing in that regard and what is the feedback they are getting on that?