Mr. Colin McGrath:

I thank Senators for their questions. So many issues have been raised within those questions that it would take a long time to respond on them all. Senator Martin asked how we can take the heat out of this situation. We do so by dealing with facts. Unfortunately, as a result of knee-jerk reactions on social media, people can be very quick to take a slant on an issue and that can very quickly grow to become a narrative. There is a line right back to the remarks of Senator Ó Donnghaile in respect of getting clear facts out to people about what they can and cannot do. If people understand that, they are very quickly able to make their own determination on an issue but if a void is left, that is filled with social media armchair commentators, confusion and misinformation. If we take it right down to the actual problems, it is not about nationalists and unionists or British and Irish.

It is about how one gets a lorry from Stranorlar to Larne as seamlessly as possible. If we focus on that as the issue, rather than window dressing it with everything else, there might be an opportunity to move forward. It is incumbent on all the governments on these islands to be able to get the correct information to people as clearly and concisely as possible.

On the issue of Brexit, for me it was happening when the vote was declared on that day in June. There were various ways and means to try to prevent it, but a democratic decision was taken by primarily English people that they wanted to leave the EU. We wasted far too much time from then to now, but that was a victim of circumstance. We all know how politics can be massively impacted by circumstance. The protocol was the least worst option available. Other options were available, but they were just dismissed, primarily by the DUP. Time and again they were not supported, and we would not be where we are today if some of those other options were explored several years ago. For people to say that the protocol, which was all that was left on the table, needs to be dismissed to bring us back to a scenario where there is nothing on the table, does not bring us forward. It just moves us backwards. If we have learned anything in this process, it is that we all need to work together and move forward, rather than take big steps backwards.

If we can stick to the facts, if people can accept that we are where we are and if they can stop intertwining identity and culture into trade matters, we should be able to take the heat out of it. That will require political leadership rather than political opportunism. I worry because I do not think that unionism is in a good place at present. All that it has for a certain amount of survival is opportunism, and perhaps it is going to lurch towards that. It is incumbent on the rest of us not to allow unionism to have that heat brought into the conversation. We should do everything we can not to rise to any of the bait it throws out.

Ms Anderson or Ms Sheerin might wish to continue.