Professor John FitzGerald:

With regard to the shared island project, there has been a huge amount of research done that fills in many gaps. I refer to the Adele Bergin-Seamus McGuinness paper on education. I knew that working-class kids are failed by the system in the North but I had not realised that in terms of equality of opportunity in Northern Ireland, who your parents were determines your future to much greater extent than in this part of the island. That research was funded by the Irish Government. The shared island research is important. It is laying the ground work for whether Northern Ireland remains in the United Kingdom, hopefully as a good neighbour, or whether there is eventually reunification.