Mr. Chris Hazzard:

Professor McEvoy said he thought we were approaching a moment for civil society to stand up. I have a great fear that civil society in the North is as polarised as it has been in a long time. I am also concerned that we do not have a sufficiently big safe public platform, and enough educated voices and academics who are not crackpots getting on media platforms. It is a lot more common for crackpots to get on than the likes of the witnesses here. I support informed, expert voices but we do not hear enough of them. As a political representative, one often finds oneself due to go on a show and the show would be pulled if there was not an opponent to go on too. It is possible to speak on an issue without an opponent but the shows are not interested because they want a row. We are talking about hugely sensitive issues, and are coming to an important moment but I do not feel that our media is mature enough now to be able to deal with some of these issues. A colleague of the witnesses from Queen's University Belfast has recently challenged media personalities on it. That feeds in to the broader situation. Do the witnesses feel there is a safe public space for these conversations and to talk about these issues in such a way that one will not be pitted against someone who says "black" just because one says "white"?