Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with my colleagues that the standard of the contributions has been incredible. It shows once again that the people, especially young people, are ahead of the politicians. Reference was made to the importance of getting the Assembly up and running. We talk about how we can work more closely together on North-South and all-island issues and that is not helped when the institutions are not running. They should not be used as a political tool whereby any party can pull itself out of power-sharing even though there are so many problems to sort out. It is great to hear there is consensus among the witnesses in that regard. The Good Friday Agreement is sacrosanct and it is the thing we always come back to because it works. No matter what is going on, we always need to find our way back to the agreement.

I have a few points to make in response to each of the contributions. I had goose bumps listening to Blair's contribution. She is an example of what happens when we empower people and give them a voice.

My question for Cohen is why change has been so slow and why it needed the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 for change to happen. I did the 11-plus examination and it is clear that this examination is gone in name only because selection is still happening. Why has that not changed?

I could not agree more with Zac's comments on reconciliation. I put the question to young MLAs at a meeting of the British-Irish Association as to what reconciliation means to individuals. It means different things to different people. For me, it is about empathy with different viewpoints. However, if people are going to glorify actions and atrocities that hurt the person with whom they are supposed to have empathy, then the empathy is lost. That is not doing enough in terms of reconciliation. I completely agree with Zac on that point.

Patrick spoke about the bread-and-butter issues. I completely agree we need to work on them, which is why I am so pleased to be part of this committee. He is right that it is dangerous to say something is inevitable because doing so takes away the choice and the idea of consent. Going back to what Blair said, it removes the ability to empower people to be part of that process. For me, it is about offering the choice respectfully and not saying, "This is happening whether you like it or not".