Mr. Owen Reidy:

I will be brief because I am conscious my colleagues want to come in. That is possible but we just need to be conscious that people have a range of identities. Those identities are fluid and there is no one right answer; there are many right answers. That is why I think we are still the largest civil society group on both sides of the Border. We have that breadth because we are not seen as a nationalist congress of trade unions or a unionist congress of trade unions. By the way, if we ever end up there, shame on us because we will have lost something beautiful and special. There are a range of views in the trade union movement on constitutional change and irrespective of any such change, we must remain united.

Better workers' rights are not just good for workers. The OECD and the World Bank maintain they are good for business and for the economy. The tide has moved post the Covid pandemic to looking at having progressive collectivisation in order that we can deal with the challenges that we saw outside this building yesterday, which is regressive far-right populist collectivisation. The centre must hold and the State needs to adjust its legislative framework so workers who want to be in a union can be in a union.