Mr. Pat McArt:

On Thursday, 22 September the Northern Ireland census figures were released. I will not bother to go into a lot of statistics, but they were seismic in two regards. For the first time since the foundation of the State, people from a Catholic background in Northern Ireland outnumbered those of the Protestant persuasion by 45.7% compared with 43.5%. Second, 32% described themselves as British only. That is a massive drop from the 66% who described themselves as British at the foundation of the state.

As I point out in my submission - I will run through this quickly - four out of the six counties already have nationalist majorities. The biggest council in the North, Belfast City Council, is no longer under unionist control. After the Assembly elections in May, for the first time the unionists are no longer the largest party in Stormont. If Stormont is reinstated, which is a big question mark, for the first time unionists will not be entitled to the First Minister's position. According to the rules, that will be in the gift of Sinn Féin.

The point I am making is that it is obvious that we are living through a time of true change. It is an irreversible change and many politicians and pundits across this country and on this island, including across the divide, have openly acknowledged this. Yet as far as I can see, our media and the political establishment are reluctant to face up to that. I will give one simple example. On the day the results were published, Thursday, 22 September 2022, RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme, "Prime Time", did not cover the findings at all. On the same day, the Taoiseach who was in New York also sought to downplay the significance of the results by describing them as "interesting". The Minister, Deputy Harris, took the same line as the Taoiseach when he suggested we should all be cautious about reading too much into these figures. This was in marked contrast to the position of Mr. Colum Eastwood, the leader of the SDLP, and I quote exactly what he said.

This is a seminal moment in the history of modern Ireland. The census figures published today reveal that, by any measure, the constitution of the North has been transformed utterly 100 years on from partition.

If any members of this committee have travelled North in recent years, they will have noticed the growth in the Irish language. Many people in the North frequently use Irish sentences or sayings. I even heard Arlene Foster say "Sin é" the other day. GAA jerseys are everywhere. The BBC's political editor, Mr. Enda McClafferty, suggested it is likely the Catholic designation will surpass 50% within five years. Yet there seems to be no urgency in the Republic to deal with this and address what is happening on the ground. I have done some empirical research and talked to numerous people across the Border. No one has been in contact with the shared island initiative. Anything that is happening is coming from the ground up.

I therefore contend we need a citizens' forum. Academics need to be brought on board. A roll-out of engagement with communities right across the country, North and South, is needed and the right of the people on the island of Ireland to vote for the President should be examined forthwith. Key players in the North should be invited to address the Oireachtas on all matters of all-Ireland significance and a White Paper should be prepared by the Government to outline its draft proposals in the event of a border poll.