Mr. Pat Hynes:

I thank Ms Hanna. To deal with her first question, in some of the private discussions we are having we are finding within unionism the emergence of a sense relating to the opportunities and challenges in the coming couple of years, particularly in respect of the economic and social challenges and opportunities that exist. We were encouraged that people engaged with us. I do not think anybody will be coming out and doing so in public but, given the maelstrom in recent years, we can appreciate that. There is a realisation, however, that Northern Ireland will have to find ways of using now the advantages and opportunities it has as a consequence of the arrangements following on from the Windsor Framework agreement.

How did they work to ensure better public services for people in Northern Ireland? How does the framework work for businesses and entrepreneurs? Those are the conversations. With regard to whether anyone will come out in public sense, we are at the early stages in all of this because we have just gone through the tumult of the past seven years or so.

With regard to the legacy, regrettably I have to say there is a sense of despair on the part of people who have lost loved ones. The impact of the transgenerational trauma that has been created as a result of the period in question leaves many at a greater sense of loss as to why the British Government would pursue this approach, given the obvious needs that are expressed loudly and clearly by political parties, representative groups of victims and so on. It is not like anybody can claim not to know or understand. The impact all of this is having is patently clear. From the perspective of whether this will encourage former combatants or others to engage in a different way than heretofore, that is an open question. I do not know the answer to that question. I know that the idea that processes will simply be shut off to people is something that creates, at least in the minds of those who have lost loved ones, a sense of being forgotten and written out of it. The challenge in the period ahead will be in how we create spaces for acknowledgement around what they would have gone through, that is, acknowledgement without obvious answers. Any answers that might be forthcoming might take on a particular hue or approach, with regard to justifying what might have been done in a particular set of circumstances. All of that is of considerable concern to victims, their families and survivors. It is an open question as to how we proceed from here, but we are in a far more difficult space than we were before.