Ms Michelle Gildernew:

We were so lucky to have very strong women as integral parts of our delegation through those negotiations. I was there at the beginning of the Assembly and am familiar with the abuse that was hurled at the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and at all the women during the negotiations. It is my understanding that Senator Mitchell had to have a word particularly with the unionist parties about their treatment of women. When we were in the chamber and were heckled and abused from the unionist benches, I was very disappointed to see the unionist women including themselves in that. I thought the sisterhood was universal but clearly in that instance it certainly was not. I refer to the treatment of Ms Hinds and Ms McWilliams especially. The misogyny that was on display was palpable and very disturbing indeed. I also make the point that there was a steady presence of women MLAs across all the parties at the negotiating table. I am thinking about people like Eileen Bell, Bríd Rogers, Patricia Lewsley and others.

The women worked well together even if the unionist women kept themselves out of that. The high profile interest from the media in the negotiations and the regular presence of women set a precedent. Girls now might think that women have had that level of presence forever but a precedent was set 25 years ago that has been carried on since. This has empowered me and other women to come forward and put our names forward for elected roles. It is great to see women leaders and leaders of political parties inspiring women and girls. There is now a firm gender footprint in the political life of the entire nation as a result. We know it not easy but all women in public or private life have made a valuable contribution to that gender footprint.

Regarding the cross-community voting mechanism, the equality and human rights provisions in the Good Friday Agreement have stood the test of time. It is worth revisiting the agreement. It was published and sent out to every home and people could read it in their own time at their leisure. I think there are people from newcomer communities who would be interested in reading the Good Friday Agreement, GFA, and the provisions within it. The provisions to protect minorities have been critical in helping us to forge a new society throughout the island. In the intervening years, the agreement has become an international template for countries and people emerging from conflict. Ms Hinds has mentioned her work and that of others as part of that as well. It has been a solid foundation on which many new societies have been built. It is best we uphold and maintain the fundamental elements of the GFA that have anchored the peace and political processes. They were hard fought and need to be protected.

I was very interested in the views of Ms Hinds on paramilitarism. I agree there is no room for paramilitarism in any form, anywhere in this country. It is a disgrace that some communities are still experiencing coercive control, intimidation and extortion. At an event in Belfast last night, I spoke about this with Ms Avila Kilmurray and Ms Dawn Purvis, formerly of the PUP. Where it exists, those communities should be supported by their political representatives to have paramilitaries removed. The PSNI has a job to do and should do it. A community that is experiencing the form of paramilitarism Ms Hinds described should be demanding that the PSNI uses all its formidable resources to remove this coercive control. We have also heard this in these committee rooms for women from the loyalist communities. It is still a scourge and we definitely need to tackle it, particularly in working-class communities.

Great progress has been made on reconciliation across society in the North, between the North and South and east-west between here and Britain. At the heart of this reconciliation, we have ordinary people from different backgrounds exploring the past and not being afraid of the future. No topic is taboo, including the country's constitutional future.

Ms Hinds talked about victims and survivors and the hurt and damage that the British Government's legacy proposals are having on those relatives who lost loved ones or had people injured during the conflict. Across this island, every party is against these legacy proposals. What impact does Ms Hinds think they are having on relatives and families and the promise within the GFA that the peace dividend would benefit them as well as everyone else? How are they feeling now as a result of all of that? I thank her for taking the time to be here today. I still keep in touch with Ms Jane Morrice, a member of the Women's Coalition. There is certainly room for more female voices, the female point of view and our lived experience and ensuring those are brought to the heart of government at every level of politics and at every level of society as well.