Mr. Ryan Carlin:

I got disconnected briefly toward the end of Mr. Brady's contribution but I have a good gist of it. In terms of the Northern Ireland protocol, and I understand what Councillor Hughes said about it, from my point of view and that of people in Border areas, it has been implemented as the best worst option. The North voted against Brexit. If checks ever had to be implemented, we wanted them to be as undisruptive as possible. As Mr. Brady said, there are many communities located along the Border and people can move freely back and forth across it. The majority of councillors on the panel today are Belfast centric. I am probably the only person from a Border constituency. I come from Derry city. If there had to be checks, it had to be at the ports. That was inevitable. We saw political unionism in Westminster when unionists had a say on what was happening. They, and Britain as a whole, rejected any sort of deal that would have allowed us to avoid any checks in terms the Single Market and the custom union. On that angle, I empathise but there are great opportunities within the protocol in that it gives us access to the Single Market. We have seen from news reports the massive growth in North-South trade in the recent past, which is beneficial to everyone on the island in building a stronger all-island economic unit.

In terms of a citizens’ assembly, on which Ms Begley touched, as a member of Sinn Féin, I am definitely in favour of creating whatever forums we can to engage on unionism. In many ways political unionism might not want to engage in conversations around a united Ireland and that is understandable. People are talking about it. We saw polls at the start of this year, which, essentially, showed those in favour of Irish unity and those against it were neck and neck. We have seen other polls that counteract that. It is my belief we are heading in that direction. It is important to have such dialogue and conversations now. Many people, particularly unionists, are worried we will talk ourselves into a united Ireland by having these forums and discussing the issue but it is my belief we should be talking ourselves into having a united Ireland. That is the means by which we should do it, namely, through dialogue, engagement and conversation. I would encourage any form of citizens' assembly, civic assembly or political forums that allow us to engage and discuss all these cross-Border and all-Ireland dimensions to make that happen. I would want to see it done in as inclusive a manner as possible. Ms Eastwood, Mr. Hughes and myself all work collectively on our council for everyone. I do not see why that would be any different in a united Ireland context.

In terms of rights, and the implementation of rights under the Good Friday Agreement, there has been much talk about the establishment of a bill of rights, which I would very much like to see. It would underpin the Good Friday Agreement. The ad hoccommittee in Stormont is working on that. For some reason there is resistance to implementing rights in the North. We continually see it is almost perceived that rights seem to be for one side, but that is not the case. Rights are for everyone and they underpin and provide a safety net for all of us, be it cultural rights, social rights or rights to housing and other such issues.

I agree with Mr. Hughes in some respects in that there is a perception that Stormont can be quite slow in terms of delivery. That is the nature of having a five party executive and people with diametrically opposed views all trying to find consensus, which can be incredibly frustrating for those who are working on it. It is also rewarding when we can get consensus and bring everyone along in that manner. Those are my views in response to some of those questions. I would be happy to take any follow-up questions.