Mr. Stuart Hughes:

Several issues were raised. Starting with the constitutional question, I have no issue with anyone who aspires to achieving a united Ireland through peaceful and legitimate means. However, what is frustrating for many unionists is that nationalism still seems to be having that conversation itself and it still needs to work out what exactly it wants to do from its perspective in this regard.

From my perspective, there is much clamour to get unionists involved in these conversations but, ultimately, these are conversations with a predetermined outcome, which is that people want a united Ireland. Therefore, I am more than happy for people to campaign for a united Ireland and seek whatever meetings they want to have but my focus is on the people of Northern Ireland and how we work for a better future for all of them.

That is where the focus of most unionists is. I am not against engaging with people and I am here today, but there is a succinct difference between that and being involved in those conversations. Some people have been engaged in them and the optics may have looked good for some of those pressure groups and think tanks that have had those people at their events. However, for me, as a unionist politician and as a representative of people in Northern Ireland, my focus will be on them, on ensuring a better future for them and ensuring that happens within the United Kingdom. If other people want to pursue this peaceful and legitimate constitutional means through whatever body they wish, that is a matter for them. There are institutions covered by the Good Friday Agreement that we have not been making full use of in recent years and that we should be considering which would help to engage people. Perhaps that is a matter we could examine in terms of how we can broaden them and broaden the input people have into them.

Regarding Brexit, our view on the protocol is very clear. I can completely understand why people do not want a hard border or checks on the island of Ireland. What I cannot understand is why nobody shows that same understanding towards unionist people who do not want checks on goods being moved, which in our view is within our own country, or their pets being subjected to checks to ensure they have been injected against diseases that have not existed on these islands for decades. That is how unionists people feel. That is the reality. It is not only people in working class unionist areas, but it is right across the board. There is deep anger. I do not want to go into where the blame lies. We often are accused of not mentioning the British Government. Trust me, if members were to go on to the Ulster Unionist Party website and type in Boris Johnson’s name around October, November or December 2019, they would see plenty of statements from the Ulster Unionist Party criticising the protocol and the role of the British Government in it. The reality is we all have a responsibility in Northern Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, in London and in Brussels to find solutions to the real problems. People are quite frustrated. We had a recent issue about sausages but the issue is not about sausages, rather it is the principle of the checks that angers people. We all understand there are other ways to source goods but it is the principle of the checks that angers people.

Regarding Mr. Brady's final question on integrated education, if I knew the answer to how to get that implemented tomorrow, I probably would not be sitting here; I would be off doing it. It is a tough one. There is goodwill from various stakeholders on this, but the question is about how we get there. My honest answer to that question is that I am not sure how we get there now. What we see in the Northern Ireland Assembly is goodwill with respect to many issues and then five years pass, we have three consultations, the Assembly takes a break for three years and we have another three consultations, and a decade later, as we have seen with licensing laws, we finally get legislation passed that changes and updates the law. There is a job of work to be done in the Northern Ireland Assembly to make that chamber more fit for purpose and more productive. If people in Northern Ireland were asked what is a big issue facing them, that probably would rank high for them because there is frustration in that respect. I come a private sector background. I cannot understand the sloth that sometimes occurs in Stormont. It is not a private versus public issue. When we note comparable legislatures in Edinburgh, Cardiff, London, Dublin or wherever, more is being delivered. Certainly, in the UK more is being delivered through devolution. There is a piece of work to be done on that.