Mr. Gerry Carlile:

Stephen McCann is here, in the Public Gallery. He is a board member of Ireland's Future and, along with Senator Black and I, and others, was central to the event last week. The precedent for a citizens' assembly has already been set by the all-island civic conversation on Brexit that took place in late 2016 and 2017 in various locations over a period. There was wide northern civic society participation in that because, in my view, it carried the imprimatur of the Government. Without minimising it, I think the work of Ireland's Future could be dwarfed if the Government truly engaged in this broad process.

Jimmy Nesbitt's speech was sensational. I think Jimmy, along with others who I mentioned, represents a growing number of people who are interested in having a conversation about the future who were not traditionally from the community that was in favour of a united Ireland. It is important to recognise that the pro-United Kingdom vote in the North has decreased by about 12% in the last 20 years. My constituency of south Belfast had 40,000 unionist votes in the Westminster election in 1972 and 4,000 pro-united Ireland votes. In the most recent Westminster election, there were 14,000 pro-United Kingdom votes and 27,000 pro-united Ireland votes in south Belfast. The changing nature of society in the North is important. Many people like Jimmy Nesbitt are interested in the new constitutional arrangement. They do not like Brexit.

They do not like the negativity associated with it or what is happening in England. They look south and they like it. They are attracted to the nature of a forward-thinking, progressive society and they want to be part of it.

Senator Clonan's points were well made. A delegation from Ireland's Future should meet him because we need to inform and educate ourselves on some of the issues that we are not as informed and educated on as we should be. I will probably drop the Senator an email later.