Mr. Mickey Brady:

I thank Lord Alderdice for the presentation. It was very interesting and he has covered many points. As Ms Begley said, many parts of the Good Friday Agreement have simply not been implemented.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about revising the Good Friday Agreement, and that is without implementing the original. If we follow on from the Bill of Rights, which has been implemented, St. Andrews and Acht na Gaeilge and other language Acts that have been put on the long finger, it seems to me that there is an unwillingness to carry on by both Governments who are joint guarantors, as was mentioned.

It was interesting to listen to the description of the friend who voted for the SDLP but did not want a united Ireland. I was around when the SDLP was formed. It was my understanding at that time the reunification of this country was way down its list of priorities. Maybe he was voting for the right party, as far as he was concerned, at a particular time. That is only a personal observation.

In terms of the Good Friday Agreement and what has not been implemented, legacy was not a big issue at the time because it was so contentious. Lord Alderdice is a Member of the House of Lords, and I presume the legacy Bill will come before the committee. Has he picked up any insider knowledge on how that might be addressed? The Parliament can overrule that, as it can with the protocol Bill. A lot of things go through Parliament that, in the long term, will not be very conducive to those of us in the North.

When I was in Stormont in 2007 and welfare cuts were being introduced, I was invited to speak at a church in east Belfast about the cuts and how they would impact on communities. What struck me at the time, which pertains to the current cost of living crisis, was that the community I represented in nationalist republican areas would be as badly off as loyalist communities in east Belfast. At the time that was accepted. There was a lot of talk about going forward together in dealing with this. Unfortunately, the flag protest came along very shortly afterwards and skewed the whole thing. I will continue to make the point that both communities have a lot more in common than is sometimes realised, particularly in terms of day-to-day living. A single parent with kids is not particularly bothered about the politics of what is happening; they are struggling on a day-to-day basis. That is now becoming more relevant with the cost-of-living crisis.

I deal with a lot of people from the unionist community on a daily basis in my constituency clinic. If one is an abstentionist, as I am, one spends a fair amount of time in a constituency dealing with constituents. I deal with issues around loyalism, unionism and people from our community. When people sit down to think about it, we are the only ones who want each other. I am sure the lack of interest in Westminster in the Six Counties is also apparent to others. We lobby all parties, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative. The lack of knowledge they have about and interest in the Six Counties is evident. They really do not want us.

At some stage we need to sit down and talk. There has been a lot of talk about a united Ireland concept. It is as if we want to be bolted on to the Twenty-six Counties in the morning as things stand, and God forbid as far as I am concerned. What we need to do is sit down and talk about a new and inclusive Ireland, how it will impact on our loyalist, unionist, nationalist and republican communities and how that affects people in the South. People want a proper health service which is free at the point of access, an integrated education system and to know how their quality of life will be improved. We need to get that message across and that is why we need to sit down and talk.

Lord Alderdice is not too keen on a citizens' assembly, but it may be a way to proceed. Trade unionism in Ireland is an all-Ireland movement. There are all-Ireland bodies which can sit down and contribute. What are his views on that?