Ms Emma Sheerin:

I thank the Chairman. I apologise for my technical difficulties. As a rural MLA, nothing proves my point about broadband more than being dropped off about five minutes into a call. I apologise for missing a short bit of the meeting as a result. Following on from the question that was asked about the overnight threats at Larne and the issues arising, It is incumbent on political unionism to show leadership and to stop hyping things up at the minute. It is, however, also important for all of us to take the worries and concerns of people seriously, be they from the Protestant unionist and loyalist communities, and to listen to what they are saying and to engage with them. There is no threat to their identity and there is no threat to their place, wherever they call home. Nobody is threatening that. As the Chairman of our own committee has rightly pointed out, this is a result of Brexit.

People are pointing to the protocol when there would not have been a protocol had it not been for Brexit. There were always going to be issues with leaving the EU, especially in the way that we did. Rather than going over old ground, I think we are better to recognise that we are where we are and to try to see how we can minimise the difficulty and the impact on the local communities that we represent.

The issues that have arisen at the checkpoints in Larne and Belfast are one part of that. We need to engage with unionism, we need to engage with the people on the ground, recognise the concerns they have and try to work through that. We are now in a position of constitutional change and, as we move down this track and as we move into a place where we are talking about a unity referendum and we are having these conversations, we need everyone to know that they are not going to be threatened, and that they are safe to live their lives and be in the home they have called home.

I welcome this engagement. It would be brilliant if this is a long-standing commitment and if we had these meetings more frequently. It is a great opportunity for us to engage with each other. As a representative for Mid Ulster, I represent south Derry, which is a rural area with a great deal of manufacturing, agriculture and other things that are being impacted upon by Brexit. Constituents are coming to me with issues all the time. It is important that we have this opportunity to have conversations with each other to see if there are opportunities within the island.

In recent weeks, people have raised issues with me that I was not aware of in the past. For example, if someone buys eggs in the North, none of the chicks that laid those eggs were born anywhere on the island of Ireland. They all come through England but originate in mainland Europe. That is something that was never an issue before. However, we have to think about the fact that egg producers in Ireland import those chicks from other countries. It is about trying to see if there is a more efficient way of doing this, both in terms of cost and the environment, and there probably is. We need to use this time to look for the solutions locally, so we are doing these things in a more sustainable way in the long term. This is a great engagement and it gives us a great opportunity to look at those solutions for the long term. Go raibh maith agat.