Mr. Stuart Hughes:

There is quite a lot to cover there. I will try to be as succinct as possible.

As regards the question on perceptions, it is always an interesting issue to consider. It works both ways. I often think about this as one who lives 100 miles from Dublin. I visit Dublin three or four times a year and, in traditional middle-class Protestant fashion, usually to attend a rugby or cricket match. We travel down and have a great time and then get the train home. I often wonder how often I would visit London if I lived 100 miles from it. I suspect it would be far more often. I hope to go to London this weekend. It relates somewhat to perception. Culturally and socially, it is not that unionists do not recognise that there is another part of the island on which we live; of course, we do. I am sure it is the same for some people in the South.

Our backgrounds and the way we were brought up and live means that the rest of the island does not feature as heavily in our psyche. It is worrying in some ways, and that goes both ways. However, more people from the Republic of Ireland have probably visited Northern Ireland in the past six weeks than in almost the past six years. I hope that will help perceptions, especially of Belfast and ensure that it is seen as a modern, vibrant city.

My gut feeling on this issue is that there is a lack of understanding across the board and that works both ways. There are exceptions. I go back to what I said earlier. We must be careful about what we say and how that is perceived. We had another instance of that yesterday, and not from somebody in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. The chair of the Northern Ireland affairs select committee at Westminster showed appalling judgement for somebody in that role. If we continue to see people, whether at Westminster, Dáil Éireann or in Stormont, making statements they know or should know are not going to be accepted by people and are going to inflame tensions, we are not going to get anywhere in changing those perceptions either. We will just end up getting into this game of saying: “There are those unionists giving out again because somebody said something about bonfires”. It might be the case, but in this instance it was because what that chairman said was stupid.

That is the reality of the situation here and why we must be careful. We must deal with this issue of perception by engaging with each other and by encouraging people to visit. It is possible to get a better perception of a place outside of politics. I am that annoying guy in the bars in Belfast who starts talking to all these southern tourists who have been coming up in recent weeks. My mates abandon ship, but I love those kinds of conversations because those are normal people behaving as if they were anywhere. Regarding the biggest barrier to unity, that is not a question for me to address. I imagine, however, that I am probably a part of that barrier, but it may be a question for others to answer regarding what they see as the barriers. I thank the Chair.