Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Professor Harvey and Mr. Bassett. We are kicking off what will be a lively debate. It is good to get a perspective on this and kick off the conversation. I note that there is correspondence from Ian Paisley that will probably be dealt with later. I listened intently to the presentation by the witnesses. I would like to get their perspective on a few matters. For me, the Good Friday Agreement was hard-fought and took a lot to get over the line. Many people see it in the context of those few weeks. Much work went on behind the scenes over many years. Why has the report not considered the impact of the US Congress and Presidency? The Good Friday Agreement is a model that has worked for us on this island previously. Why do the witnesses now think that we should work this through the EU? What dialogue have they had with unionist communities and politicians and what are their impressions of the report?

Professor Harvey referred to the shared island unit. I find that hard to take from an academic because some of the presentation sounds like it is only a matter of having the referendum and then we are away. Let us not be that simplistic and let us remember how hard this was fought and won previously. It is not as simple as having a referendum. Much more dialogue needs to be held with unionist politicians. Without them being on board, I do not see this happening. My fear is that if there is a referendum tomorrow, it would not be won on either side of the Border. There is much work to be done. Reports like this and the language used in them make it much more difficult to achieve the objective that we are talking about. I feel that we are putting the cart before the horse. We have not had the necessary dialogue to bring unionists with us and create trust. The idea of the shared island unit is to create that trust and start working with them.

We were at the beginning of a process and the Northern Ireland protocol came along. As we know from meetings last week, relationships are at a delicate stage. This is a delicate process. I do not agree at all that it is comparable to Germany. Those are my views. I am interested in hearing other people's views. I would love if it was that simple but it is not. The majority of us, in our hearts and souls, know that. We are here having a discussion and there are no unionists at our meeting. There is much to do before we get to the stages that the witnesses are talking about.

The US is paramount in all this. It was the key element in the Good Friday Agreement. Senator Ó Donnghaile mentioned that Richard Neal was presenting to us in the Seanad Chamber. I mentioned to him that day that it is my opinion that, with the involvement of the US Congress, a similar agreement to the Good Friday Agreement will be needed to get to a shared future. The more that we talk up a united Ireland, the less chance that we have of getting unionists to the table. I do not like to think of what the future will hold in that scenario. Peace has been hard-won on this island and I would not want to take steps back before we go forward.