Mr. John Bruton:

The trouble with visibly and with a lot of clamour preparing is that while it is popular with the electorate here, which sees it as a one-up for us and we are on the way to adding the fourth green field, it is not necessarily seen in the same way in the unionist community. Maybe the civic unionism is beginning to see it differently but I do not think we are not there yet in Ballymena, Bushmills or east Belfast. We do not think we have arrived at a situation where people are fully ready for that. However, we need to put effort into finding out what people think. The committee could look at that and how it can objectively find out what are the underlying anxieties of unionists and how these can be allayed. Some of the things they are anxious about we may think they are not anxious about and some of the things they are not anxious about we may think they are anxious about. We need to research their concerns more deeply, not in a clamorous, publicity-seeking way but rather below the radar so that we are ready if the opportunity arises to do something.