Mr. Owen Reidy:

We appreciate the opportunity to be with the committee today to discuss this important topic. The members have our submissions. I will make a couple of brief points. We welcome this debate. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is an all-island federation and, with workers across the island, it has an important contribution to make to this debate. We are proud of the fact that we are truly a cross-community organisation in Northern Ireland. We represent workers from both traditions and international workers who describe themselves as unionist, nationalist, loyalist, republican and none of the above. That plurality and diversity adds to our voice in this debate. It is a unique voice in that regard. For that reason, we do not take a particular view as persuaders for a united Ireland or persuaders for the status quo. We deal with the situation as we find it.

Whether or not one is in favour of a united Ireland and constitutional change, the state of health of the Belfast agreement, or Good Friday Agreement, should be of concern for all. It is in serious disrepair. Strand one is down, and has been down for 30% of the time since devolution. Strand two in not operating and has been subject to boycotts in recent years. Most Irish diplomats will say that east-west relations, which comprise strand three, are probably at their lowest point in the past 20 years, largely due to the behaviour of recent Tory Governments, in particular around Brexit. Whether one is for constitutional change or the status quo, that is the current constitutional settlement and everyone needs to make sure it is resurrected, and that it works.

We also need to learn from the chaos of Brexit. We need to learn from those mistakes. A political elite gave people a limited binary choice without any preparatory work. There was no debate about the customs union or Single Market, whether students could access the Erasmus programme, etc. Brexit also resulted in the Northern Ireland protocol and the problems with the Irish Sea. We need to learn lessons from that and we cannot allow the debate to be dictated by those of either persuasion who have firm and fixed views. There are many people to persuade.

There has been a lot of talk about the idea of constitutional change but there has not yet been much talk about what it might look like.

Brendan O'Leary's piece in his book is a very welcome contribution. We need to start looking at the mechanics without taking anything for granted and without assuming that constitutional change is inevitable. Regarding whether we have constitutional change or the status quo, there is also the issue of accompanying socio-economic change that addresses the concerns of workers North and South as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and go headlong into a cost-of-living crisis. I hear people say if we had a united Ireland, we could have X, Y and Z and others say that if we had the status quo, we could have X, Y and Z. We will have nothing unless we make political choices that are fundamental. We need to see a transformation of the island of Ireland when it comes to socio-economic issues for all workers whether we have change or the status quo.