Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I offer a very warm welcome to our guests. I thank them for their very helpful contributions and very individual approaches. I wish to ask a few questions. I belong to a body of people who greatly aspire to a united Ireland but who believe that a referendum should not be held until we are at the point where it would be much more than a 51:49 situation, where there would be very strong support for a united Ireland, and where there would be a consensual situation. Otherwise, it is the view of people like me that it would create a situation that would flip the nationalist objection to the existing State. We do not want that. Perhaps one of panel would like to take up this point and comment on that.

I was interested in some of the propositions that Professor Harvey made. I certainly agree about expanding the shared island unit. Will Professor Harvey elaborate on other ways that we could prepare? The professor made a very good point. It is about building relationships and bringing people together.

Finally, I come to the Scottish National Party representatives who are all very welcome. I will ask them to do a little bit of crystal ball gazing around where they see their independence is at now. When do they believe Scotland might hold another referendum? What do recent opinion polls suggest, and what data are they collecting in terms of the future?

I will not elaborate beyond that other than to ask for a reaction to my proposal. I sincerely believe that we should be planning and we should be bringing people together. I might not totally go with the interesting proposition about Belfast but it is creative and is different and we want to be creative. It will have to be a creative solution ultimately, and it will have to give expression to all of the traditions on the island and all the groupings. I would be interested in the witnesses' reaction to my broader proposition that we should wait until we have statistics and data to suggest that there would be a very strong majority for a united Ireland, and that we should not move before that.