Frances Black (Independent)

I apologise for being late. I wanted to be here but there was another meeting at the same time that I had to attend. I was there from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. I thank the witnesses for coming in today to share their expertise and experience with us and apologise for not being here for the opening statements. The witnesses' organisations undertake such crucial work. I am grateful that we are getting an opportunity to incorporate their perspectives into this report.

I hear the witnesses' frustration around the funding piece. It sounds like everybody is managing or protecting their own patch. Do the witnesses find that the most frustrating issue or what is the most frustrating issue for them? In the South, we often have a binary or reductive idea of civic and political life in the North. I hope this committee and the witnesses' appearance today can contribute in a small way to creating a better understanding of life in the North. I wonder about the funding piece that has been talked about at length.

After the end of EU funding in the North and before the restoration of Stormont, it seemed like Northern Irish civil society was facing an existential funding crisis. The witnesses have touched on the impact of that. I ask them to speak about the impact that insecurity and many years of what I would call Tory austerity have had on civil society in the North, in particular on the witnesses' organisations?

Why does funding not come down to their organisations? What is the block there? Is it because many other organisations are protecting their patch? That can be quite divisive. I have always believed everyone should be working together but that is another world, I suppose. It would be ideal if there was a partnering up with other organisations so that people could work together. Will the witnesses expand on the impact the loss of EU funding in the North had on them before the restoration of Stormont?