Mr. Ryan Carlin:

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil as ucht an deis seo. I thank the committee for the invitation to discuss the views of the next generation of political representatives on the politics and current affairs in the North. To give the committee an understanding of my views, I will give some insight into my background. I am currently a member of the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, to which I was elected in 2019. I also ran as a parliamentary candidate in that year for the 2019 Westminster election. In my professional life, I work in Belfast's growing technology sector as a software engineer and development manager. Although I am a political representative from south Belfast on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, I am originally from Derry city. I was born and raised in the Bogside area of the city, where I attended the local integrated primary school at the direction of my mother, whose ambition was that my brother and I would grow up engaged in a positive cross-community environment and experiencing friendships with those from different backgrounds and communities from ours. Many of those friendships last to this day.

In January 2020, my son was born in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. My partner is from Navan, County Meath and our family relationships, like a growing number of others on this island, naturally extend beyond the artificial boundaries imposed on us. From Derry to Belfast and from Meath to Lisburn and Castlereagh, we are as Irish as the next family and the fluidity of our lives across the Border give a broadened sense of just how small our island is. It is my ambition that my son will grow up in an Ireland free from these artificial boundaries, and the divisions they sow, on a unified island and in a unified community. However, to realise that reality, we must see the appropriate preparation, planning and civic engagement.

Irish unity and the provisions for constitutional change are a cornerstone of the Good Friday Agreement. It is embedded in the heart of the agreement, which clearly outlines our pathway to the unification of Ireland and dictates that a new constitutional future in Ireland can only be achieved with the democratic consent of the people of Ireland. It is my belief that members of this generation want their say on that future. Like me, they are ambitious for change. They see the unnatural imposition of partition on their lives and aspire to build something better, not just for them but also for their children. I have always believed in Irish unity.

Brexit has caused a paradigm shift in many people's thinking, and there is now a rapidly growing and diverse constituency that recognises the great potential of an all-island economy and a unified nation within the European Union. These conversations have begun. They are happening in our offices or via Zoom and in our homes across the country. I speak daily both with constituents and work colleagues in my profession, many from a unionist background, who are now ready to have that conversation and eager to know what a united Ireland would look like. Twenty-three years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, we must now move to provide them with answers. It is my view that this conversation is headed in only one direction, and in the coming years there will be referenda on Irish unity, North and South, as outlined in the Belfast Agreement. The people want their say. The success or otherwise of those referenda, however, will hinge on the preparation, engagements and dialogues we make today. I believe that this generation is the one that will finally make our ambitions on Irish unity a reality. It is ready for that task and comes with a renewed determination and ambition to deliver for all our people as part of a new Ireland.

I will be happy to take questions on my opening statement or on general politics in the North.