Has the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland been a contributory factor to the recent community disturbances in the province?
Tuesday 8 June 2021
This is one of the questions that the Lords committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland will be asking a panel of witnesses on Wednesday 9 June 2021
At 4.15pm the committee will hear evidence from:
- Dr Esmond Birnie, Senior Economist, Ulster University
- Professor Katy Hayward, Professor of Political Sociology, Queen’s University Belfast
- Professor Peter Shirlow, Director, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool.
They will be giving evidence to the committee’s introductory inquiry into the operation of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.
This evidence session will be held remotely and streamed on Parliament TV.
The questions the committee is likely to ask include:
- What are the main technical, economic or political issues that have so far arisen in relation to the Protocol’s operation?
- Has the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland had any positive impact on Northern Ireland?
- What impact has the Protocol, and UK withdrawal more broadly, had on trade flows between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, and the rest of the EU?
- What impact has the Protocol had on community identity in Northern Ireland?
- What impact has the Protocol had on the peace process, and on the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement?
- How effective has the UK Government’s approach to the Protocol, and its engagement with Northern Ireland stakeholders, been since it came into force?
- How effective has the EU’s approach to the Protocol, and its engagement with Northern Ireland stakeholders, been?
- In view of their different perspectives on the Protocol, what baseline requests for action should the parties represented on the Northern Ireland Executive agree to put to the UK Government and EU in relation to the Protocol?
