Ms Claire Hanna:

I thank the Chair and Mr. Murphy. I am aware that other people will be contributing, so I will keep my comments fairly brief. I thank Mr. Murphy for coming before the committee. It has been a really interesting discussion. Clearly, there are many views regarding tone and pace even among the members of the committee. Before I ask two genuinely-meant questions, I want to pull up Mr. Murphy on two things. A bit like Senator Currie said, I refer to the language about "catching up" - and I can understand where it comes from - that feels a little reflective of the Brexit conversation, where people were ranked by their speed, purity and longevity in adherence to that cause.

From the perspective of the SDLP, the North-South aspect and fulfilling all the potential of the Good Friday Agreement is something we have been dedicated to from day one. If people are, therefore, playing a kind of maÌtre d'role in asking people to come into a process and then being glad that they have decided to join in it, it is important in that context to recognise that the Good Friday Agreement is multifaceted and the border poll is a crucial part of it but that people's work on all the strands and aspects of the agreement also should be respected.

The other brief observation I have as an elected MP is to state that we must be cautious when talking about constituencies. I think the term "united Ireland constituencies" was used earlier. I am humble enough to say that I cannot swear to the constitutional aspirations of everybody who voted for me. Overlaying that outcome on previous election results shows that thousands of people voted for me in the Westminster election of December 2019 who had previously voted for unionist parties. We campaigned very strongly in that election on the issue of limiting the damage from Brexit. Therefore, I am just a wee bit cautious, as the SDLP has always been, about people making every election a border poll. I am also cautious about describing these as "united Ireland constituencies" and ascribing political views to people when they vote on different issues.

I am cautious in that regard concerning not just a diverse constituency like mine but also, for example, in respect of somewhere like Belfast North. John Finucane MP has expressed similar sentiments to what I just said, in stating that those elections in 2019 were unique and it is important to not immediately bag everybody who voted for remain as being for a united Ireland as well. Many of those people, including many thousands in my constituency, will be for a united Ireland. However, I am just uncomfortable for people who voted in good faith on a particular issue, like Brexit, now being put in a basket as part of a "united Ireland constituency" as a result. I think that kind of presumptuousness frightens people and may not facilitate people voting outside their comfort zones.

I also agreed with a lot of points from different contributions. I have two queries about engagement with unionism more widely. It was interesting to hear from Rev. Karen Sethuraman and Mr. Trevor Lunn MLA recently at this committee on the subject of engagement with people who do not come from a traditional nationalist background and who are not instinctively for this conversation. How far will Ireland's Future go to engage with individuals in that regard, as well as more broadly? We had a presentation from officials in the shared Ireland unit and they had also done good work in searching and finding people who were not already plugged into this conversation.

Regarding the final report of the University College London, UCL, working group on Irish unification referendums published last week, has Mr. Murphy had an opportunity to go through it? An interim report was published by the group some months ago. The final report now considers some of the structural aspects which must be examined to have a good, solid and engaged debate and some of the gates that will need to be passed through. I would like to hear Mr. Murphy's response to that report. Has that served to crystalise his thinking regarding the timing of a possible referendum? Those are my questions, because I know others want to come in.