Ms Martina Anderson:

My appeal for the members of the committee is to do what they would do in any situation, namely, to assess the facts and not to get caught up in hysteria or to believe that because an action is taken, that action was based on an actual threat. If it is based on a threat, then that is appalling and disgraceful and needs to be condemned. My appeal and that of Sinn Féin is for that assessment to be done. I live in Derry, and we have long heard about the radiotherapy unit in Altnagelvin Hospital. I am aware of how long and hard people in Donegal and the north west have fought to have access to the hospital. I am closer to Donegal than I am to Strabane, geographically and literally, and to everything in that regard.

My heart is at where my heart is at. I am minutes away from having one foot in Donegal and the other foot in Derry. I assure the committee that this is not just my opinion which I am expressing regarding trying to convince the people of the North in this respect. We have been dragged out of the EU against our express wishes. Things will happen which will have EU law attached to them, and we will have no say about the form and initiation of such undertakings because of the democratic deficit. In addition, we had only just been taken out of the EU when the British Government announced two weeks ago that it was doing a review of workers' rights. I refer to those rights being under threat, such as the 48-hour week being re-examined. In that context, we are being told that our employment rights need to go, and we must now also have car insurance green cards to travel from Derry into Donegal. Those are some of the things which have been lost as a consequence of Brexit.

We have also been told that it is okay for the British Government, through the Internal Market Bill, to change the protocol and to strip powers from Ministers in the North and give those powers to British Ministers. Those Ministers could then override decisions taken by Ministers in the North regarding the budget. We in the North would have no democratic scrutiny of that process and would not be party to decisions that might be reached by British Ministers. I refer to actions such as an outreach initiative to a particular firm in the North, for example, which may not be part of the budgetary programme or programme of work here in the Assembly.

With all due respect, when I listen to suggestions that we have the best of both worlds I refer to all those things we have been stripped of that I have just outlined. The people I represent are being stripped of all those things. Sometimes we do not know what we have until it is gone. Day after day, we hear more examples in this regard. A constituent was in contact with me last week because she wanted to get access to cross-Border healthcare. She did not realise that she could not make that application anymore because of Brexit and that option was now lost to her. The realisation caused shock waves for her. I refer to Brexit not just being about trade, the customs union and the Single Market. People did not really understand the full implications. Workers are talking to us as well and asking how their rights will be upheld in this context.

Our appeal to the members of the committee concerns the need for serious EU reform. I believe we can bring about that reform if we engage with the EU and that it can be a better EU, depending on the representation which is sent to those institutions. After losing all those things I have spoken about, we are now being told that the time is not right for us to get our pathway back into the EU. The Good Friday Agreement has offered us a democratic pathway back into the EU, and that might be via the reunification of Ireland. Many people, regardless of whether they come from a nationalist or republican constituency, feel European as well.

They feel Irish, they feel British and they also feel European. There is a challenge to the South in perhaps moving itself, as we all have to do, out of its comfort zone that this is not the right time. That is not the way life works. As the saying goes, "Man plans and God laughs." Life does not allow us to go in when we think it will be the best possible time. The conversation is already happening. I have been in halls where DUP representatives have told the audience there was no conversation about Irish unity taking place in their constituency only for someone from the Orange Order to stand up and say, "That is not quite true, Jeffrey." They want to know whether they will be able to have orange parades. These are the kinds of questions that will arise among ourselves. I would like members in the South to understand the extent of the impact of being dragged out of the EU and what it means. While the focus is on ports and trade and cattle and sheep, cattle and sheep have more rights and protections than human beings in the North at the moment. That is a role of this committee, which should be concerned about protecting the rights of the people of the North regardless of what community they come from.