Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator McGahon, who was going to go first, is on a phone call. I thank him because this meeting was his idea. It has been a positive meeting. I will be selfish and say that the one thing I would like to get out of the meeting is for relationships to be formed and followed up on a more regular basis, either through the committee or personally. Mr. Hughes touched on one of the questions I intended to ask, which is whether there is a disconnect between perceptions in the South and what is happening in the North? Are we in the South in touch in that regard? I want the meeting to be about asking questions and listening to responses. Although there may be a perception in the South that everything in the North is seen through the constitutional lens, all of us do not see everything through it. It is important to acknowledge that the dynamics are shifting but that we share an island and, whatever constitutional change may bring, we have to commit ourselves to the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, working together and having North-South co-operation.

What three things do our guest consider important at the moment that may not have been discussed? What is coming up for them as important issues? Is legacy an important issue for their generation of politicians? Do they consider that we need to find a framework that works to move on? How significant is the legacy of trauma in their everyday political work?

I refer to "others". I like the move away from binary politics to much more pluralist politics and giving everybody a voice. When people say they do not wish to go back to the way things were, sometimes that relates to the absence of peace, but it also needs to relate to binary politics. In terms of "others", what are the solutions there? Some 23 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, what are the solutions with regard to giving "others" their own identity?