Lord Empey:

As a unionist, I believe there is hardly much point in me sitting down with people to discuss another constitutional configuration because it does not really make an awful lot of sense, just as if I were to ask the Deputy to sit down with me and discuss the reunification of the United Kingdom. I suspect she might have some difficulty with that. The truth is that we have mutually exclusive views on the fundamental geometry of these islands. The point about the Good Friday Agreement was that it found a mechanism to manage that in a way that permits everybody to pursue routine day-to-day matters on a fundamental understanding that there is a democratic mechanism built into the agreement for change. In other words, I am not going to sit down with the Deputy and discuss how we bring about a united Ireland. I think I should be honest with her. The concept of joining two pieces of land together and saying, "That's a nation", is somewhat outdated now. The point is that we have a mechanism to co-operate together. I did a lot of it when I was in government and at different departments. We never had any difficulties working together. When we had mutual issues of benefit, we could take them. None of us can predict the future and what will happen. If the agreement is adopted, future generations have a mechanism at their disposal, if they want to use it. We should get on and do what we can together to help one another prosper.

The Deputy mentioned the all-island economy. The reason InterTradeIreland was formed was to accelerate the volume of North-South activity. It has not accelerated very much. Brexit and the protocol situation that has arisen has changed things somewhat. I refer to the value of exports. I use this term because the Central Statistics Office in Cork separates trade with Great Britain and trade with Northern Ireland.

Exports from the Republic to Northern Ireland were equivalent to 1.8% of the total of the Republic's exports. The other way around, with imports into the Republic from Northern Ireland as opposed to Great Britain, it was roughly the same. Of course, it is a greater slice of Northern Ireland's cake because it is smaller but nevertheless after all those years, and I am going up to about 2017, it is still very small, relatively speaking. InterTradeIreland was formed to grow that. While things have now changed because of the circumstances surrounding Brexit and the protocol, it may result in some significant growth. However, it has been relatively modest and confined. The bulk of it is agrifood and services are excluded from it. It is mostly agrifood and the services are fairly minimal. Even with the medicine situation, the European Union changed its legislation because there was a tradition of certain countries in the EU receiving most of their medication from Great Britain. That included the Republic and places like Malta, Cyprus and so on. Even then, the number of medical devices and medicines going from the Republic into Northern Ireland is very small and has not really changed much in recent years. There is a lot of slack there and there is a lot of potential for growth. It seems bizarre that you can almost see another market across the field but there are, relatively speaking, fairly modest levels of trade. I always ask people across the water in England what percentage of trade they think we are doing North and South and they come up with all sorts of figures like 40% or 50%. It is bonkers. The actual figure is very small. There is potential there for growth, which would be to our mutual benefit. That seems to me an area where people could genuinely co-operate and make some headway.