Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Mr. Major for his attendance, his frankness, his analysis and his work. It is great to have him here and have his experience and knowledge. The final point is about where we go from here. It is not the subject of today's meeting but the biggest problem now is that the institutions are not working right, although the east-west one is beginning to work the way we all want it to. We should do anything we can to reassure the people in Northern Ireland and particularly unionism. From meeting with people within unionism, and members of this committee met with some of them yesterday, it is clear they feel isolated. They feel they are not listened to. They feel things are changing, obviously. What we need to do, going back to Sir John's point, is work with unionism. We need to sit down with unionists and listen to them to build an Ireland that everybody can agree on into the future. That is the big message I am getting from unionism. We have to be especially conscious and reach out to unionism as a result of demographic change, the potential of a referendum on the Border, and issues like that. We must be seen to respect their right to be British, the right to their identity, as we would also respect the right of nationalists to be nationalists and to believe in a united Ireland. I think that is where we have to go as a committee.