Ms Claire Hanna:

My thanks to our witnesses. It was enjoyable to hear from them. I enjoyed the session the last time and the various questions and suggestions that members have made.

The key word Senator Erin McGreehan used was "convergence". It will be about meeting and matching two different economies and different sets of governance and infrastructure. I want to touch on infrastructure, in particular. The focus of the witnesses on education in the research area is welcome, especially the selection aspect. This pertains more to the economic discussion we are having. Integration and sharing are part of this as well but the economic part is key.

I see a barrier there. There are certainly vested interests and it is a complex issue, but the governance gap in Northern Ireland is the problem. The Northern Ireland Assembly does not do small decisions well and it certainly does not do big decisions well. I know that from looking at it as a public representative and as a parent. The belief that the Northern Ireland Assembly has shown the ability to realise transformation on the scale that is required feels unrealistic. I believe it is worth saying. No elected representative could fail to see the extent to which academic selection is failing society in terms of the children who are getting bad outcomes and how unfair the system is.

It is always worth pointing out that we need to take the blame off parents. I am thinking of the area I represent. I will be going through this as a parent in the coming year or two. There are excellent schools around but all local schools are over-subscribed and academically selective. People are forced into certain decisions because they want to make the best choice for their children. This is important in the debate when we talk about the flaws in the education system. While people obviously try to do the right thing, it is not individual families who are at fault.

I see a governance issue. In this centenary week we can say we have not enjoyed good governance at any point in the past 100 years. We have not even enjoyed good governance in the 20 years when we have been in control of our own destiny with devolution.

The witnesses talked about the issue of bright young people leaving. Few things are more economically short-sighted than investing in 14 years of a child's education and then essentially forcing the child to leave due to artificial caps on third level places or making the place such a basket case that the student does not want to come home subsequently.

I want to ask about the extent to which the economic consequences of governance are visible. It seems our overall arrangements do not have the normal action-and-consequence cycle in politics. The subvention comes from London. It seems no matter how poor the decisions are, the cheque keeps coming for public services. It would appear that in an electoral sense in some cases no matter how poor the decision-making is the votes keep coming. Are these failings evident in the data seen by the witnesses? What if we chip the fundamentals of the economy in terms of the inputs, resources and general context that we are dealing with, even if we factor in the unnatural divisions? Can that be cut up better?

All of this is important in terms of the debate about constitutional change because for many of us changing the paradigm is the motivation. It is the fact that we believe perhaps the only way to get good governance is to change the constitutional arrangement as it has not been working here.

Can the witnesses see that in the numbers? Can they see how better decision making and better governance could have better outcomes, even looking at the fundamentals of this society and economy?

I also have a brief question on Brexit and its impact, further to Deputy Conway-Walsh's questions. I agree about the potential opportunities. The SDLP has been saying for the past three or four months that while we are handed lemons, we are trying to make lemonade in terms of realising those opportunities. Can the witnesses comment on what the Assembly, the UK Government and bodies such as Invest Northern Ireland, Invest NI, need to do to realise those opportunities and in which sectors they see them? Again, I see governance as a big problem here because investors are surely looking for stability and certainty in the rules and the environment in which they are going to be trading. Will the witnesses comment on things we could do to prime those sectors in order to realise those opportunities?