Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We can take Lord Jay up on his proposal to meet again in the autumn. Baroness Goudie said the same. It would be timely in the aftermath of the subcommittee publishing its report. We could do that. I agree with Lord Jay that today's meeting was one of intent. It was constructive but it was also heartening. Lord Hain emphasised trust, Baroness O'Loan emphasised respect, and Baroness Ritchie spoke about dialling down the rhetoric, which is a sophisticated way of saying "calm down". From our own personal journeys in life, we all know what the limitations of telling people to calm down are. Baroness Goudie emphasised the potential of a mediator while Lord Hain spoke about honest brokers. I will not open up the debate about where that goes but memories of George Mitchell come to mind in respect of that. With respect to formal and informal, Baroness Ritchie gave us a semi-formal invite to Downpatrick. We always talk in terms of London and Dublin. Perhaps it would be nice to have something formal in Downpatrick and we could do something informal the next day in Donegal across the Border to reach out. It would be an opportunity for both committees to meet up in Northern Ireland. I will leave the witnesses with an old Irish saying, "Má theastaíonn uait aithne a chur orainn, mair inár dteannta", which means if you want to get to know us, live with us.

What I am taking from this meeting is that the reason people were not meeting was not all down to Covid. Over the past ten years, what we could call a vacuum has been created. We must get back to basics. I remember joining 12 of my colleagues in Stormont. We met Peter Robinson and the late Martin McGuinness. Peter Robinson started his speech by saying it was about building relationships. He then stopped and said, "No, delete that. The relationships are already there. It's what we do with these relationships that is important." Perhaps we need to look at the language we use. As a Donegal man who lives in Ulster, one thing I know about Ulster is that when you tell somebody what to do, it does not really work out. It has not worked out and never will work out so perhaps we need to ask the questions differently and ask what we can do to help out. I know the subcommittee's experience and wisdom as a committee, and it is great to have all of its members online. They have such great experience, knowledge and insight and we could do good work collectively.

Once again, I thank our witnesses and members of our committee. We will take the subcommittee up on its invitation and try to keep the engagement going. It is to be hoped we can meet up in the autumn. I wish Lord Jay well along with Charles Kinnell and the work he is doing. We are very grateful for this engagement today.