Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My second question is to my colleague, Mr. Carlile, and concerns the role civic society plays in this conversation. He mentioned Jimmy Nesbitt's contribution at the recent Ireland's Future event. Mr. Nesbitt suggested in his speech that the time could be right to view the debate in a post-unionism and post-nationalism context. He said:

I know many Northern Protestants are open to this. Among my friends, who are all lads who are Protestants - well, men, we are all in our mid-50s looking down the barrel of 60 - they would really consider now what the notion of a new union of Ireland might look like, and I think there's a lot of people that think that.

He went on to say:

I believe, I firmly believe that we need to bring this discussion out of the Dáil, out of Stormont, out of Whitehall, out of academic fora and into the village halls and town halls, the church halls, the Orange halls.

My point is, I think, that any change must be people led and solutions cannot be forced on those people. If we should have learnt anything from history, we should have learnt that.

Will Mr. Carlile comment on what Mr. Nesbitt said? It was a powerful speech that covered everything and I encourage everybody to listen to it.