Mr. Cohen Taylor:

I love the magic wand analogy. If I had a magic wand, I would reform the Good Friday Agreement, as was done in 2014 under the Stormont House Agreement. Under that agreement, £500 million was earmarked for integrated education. As of earlier this year, only around £60 million of that had been spent. If I had a magic wand, I would create a new agreement based on voluntary coalition that said every party in Stormont will have a seat at the table but if they do not wish to take up that seat, everybody else will form a government without them. We cannot sustain a political system whereby one party on any side of the community has the right to hold politics and people to ransom. That would be my magic wand point.

Regarding the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, I was privileged to give evidence on that to the Stormont education committee. As with all legislation, there was back-and-forth engagement and it was a long process, but we got there. The word settled on to expand the 1989 order from the Department of Education was "support". The statutory duty placed on the Department included that additional word, "support". What we really need now is an Minister of Education and a Department of Education that will act on that and support integrated education. I do not believe you need to force any type of education on any young person or any family. I think young people and parents organically will choose integrated education if the places are made available by the Department.