Mr. Ryan Carlin:

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Off the bat, Sinn Féin and I work and engage with unionism every day. Sometimes there is a perception south of the Border that Sinn Féin and the DUP are constantly at loggerheads. We are in terms of equality and rights issues. I know that Ms Groogan touched on the eighth amendment. Marriage equality was an issue for a long time. Acht na Gaeilge was another issue.

We work, where possible, to find consensus. We try to work with unionism every day, but at times, it is impossible. There are parties that are more progressive in their outlook and parties that are not. It becomes incredibly difficult to deal with those issues. I sit, as one of two Sinn Féin representatives, on a majority unionist council in Lisburn and Castlereagh, along with Mr. Hughes. We work every day to deal with issues. We have the odd spat, but we engage positively and try to build consensus where we can. I would like to dispel any myths or beliefs that we do not engage or work together; we do, and try our best to do so.

The shared island unit is a positive step for the Irish Government to take in terms of connectivity across the island in respect of transport. I believe there has been discussion of the possibility of developing the University of Ulster's Magee campus. The Narrow Water Bridge project received funding recently to link the North and South better. I would like the unit to move further and work towards Irish unity. Sometimes we forget that the North does not exist in isolation. Many geopolitical factors also come into play, which I believe we need to prepare for. We only have to look to Scotland, where there is a majority in favour of Scottish independence in the Scottish Parliament. What would our process or reaction be if Scotland were to obtain independence? Are we prepared for the political outworkings of that or what might be on offer? We should look towards greater integration and potentially for a move towards Irish unity. That is obviously an Irish republican's point of view. I would like the shared island unit take that step further. As was previously stated by Professor Colin Harvey, when he appeared before the committee, a united Ireland is a shared Ireland. That is the message that we need to put across and it is what we want to see.

Sinn Féin is 100% in favour of the civic forum and will continue to push to have it implemented. It is also important to have an all-island outlook on this. Sometimes we look at the Six Counties in a small, narrow manner in respect of what we can do to better integrate or connect people. There are also barriers between the North and South and barriers along the Border. More broadly, there are barriers between Belfast and Dublin. We need to move to better align people's thinking and integration both in a North-South capacity as well as within the North.