Ms Áine Groogan:

Most of what I intended to say about the protocol and the citizens' assembly has been covered quite well by Ms Eastwood and Mr. de Faoite. I agree that there is no harm in having conversations. The last thing anyone ever wants to have is Brexit part II where we have a vote on something when people have very little understanding of what it means in reality. With Brexit, we have seen is very much like playing off that. We have been very supportive of a people's vote on what the final deal would have looked like. What we are seeing now is the outworkings of unpreparedness and the fact that we were thrown into something where nobody knew what was coming down the line.

I will pick up on the point regarding inefficiencies at Stormont made by Mr. Hughes. This is true. We are all pretty frustrated with the lack of progress on many issues. A simple example that is affecting us as councillors is the legislation on meeting remotely. Legislation was rushed through last year, which was great, but nobody realised that there was a deadline set in that, which meant that come 3 May 2021, under the legislation, we could not longer meet remotely. We are still waiting for that legislation to finally come into effect. It was pretty minor. It seemed to be a case of a copy and paste of what was there last year and change the date yet, we are taking months to get that through. If this is how it takes to do that, what hope do we have of anything else?

The point about integrated education is a great one.

Nobody is saying that he or she does not want integrated education. We have seen little coming through in terms of making that a reality in Northern Ireland. It is up to parents and schools to drive that. There is no government push to make that happen. I welcome a Private Members' Bill coming through on that, but this is an executive job. It should be doing it but it is not. Serious questions should be asked as to why it is still left to parents to drive this. There are more and more barriers put in their way. I pay tribute to the likes of the integrated education fund, which does incredible work to try to support those who do want to make that change. Many more people want that option. The Lagan Valley school is just outside my South Belfast constituency. It is probably the most over-subscribed school in Northern Ireland. There is serious appetite there, yet government policy fails so many children and parents who want that option. I will round it up there because time is of the essence.