Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their presentations. I have found that the good thing about this committee is that, while nobody will be surprised to know my view on this debate, we were all resolute that we wanted to get the broadest possible voices to contribute to this discussion. We are the better for it, so I thank the witnesses for that.

As I tend always to do, I will follow Ian Marshall’s advice and mostly listen. I only have a few points and observations to make. I just want to get the witnesses’ reflections on them.

I am very keen to hear more about the model Mr. Dougherty talks about that his own organisation uses. I am keen to hear about that in my own personal capacity. When he speaks about the parades and the expressions of culture on 12 July, I was struck by the fact that last week in this room, the CEO of Ireland's Future was talking about going up the top of the street and watching his friends take part in the 12 July parade. Those kind of changes are happening out there and it is important that we reflect them as well.

Professor Shirlow outlined that the Sinn Féin and SDLP vote has not changed from 39% since 1998, but the unionist vote has declined by 12% in the best part of 20 years. All of these statistics are doing the rounds. We must start to look beyond some of that and look at where we are at now. I agree with what he said about fintech and being a world leader, as well as some of the fantastic industry we have, not least the creative industries and film making. I do not think anybody is advocating that it would end. I accept there may be potential pitfalls and shocks to our economic system attached to constitutional change but that is why all of us who advocate for change agree that we must get the groundwork right and try to analyse and understand what the potential shocks are so that we can absorb them.

Last week, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, hit us with some very stark figures in terms of differentials North and South. I do not want to do down the North because I am from there, I live there and I want to see society do better but there are very clear differentials. We must start to talk collectively about how we reimagine the whole island and not look at these two systems in isolation and making a tweak here and there. We could imagine something entirely new as a gateway to Europe and the United States in terms of fintech, the industries here in Dublin and how we ensure that the west is supported as much as the North in terms of infrastructure. The west and the north west have been neglected by this State for a hell of a long time. We must create change that benefits society right across the island. I appreciate that I have said a bit. I am not walking out; I just have to step out for a few minutes to make a call and then I will be back in.