Mr. Bertie Ahern:

We all agree that the preliminary work is now being done by several organisations. The Senator mentioned NESC. There is also the work of the shared island unit and there is academic work. The work of all those groups and bodies is good and it all feeds in. Ultimately, it must feed into the centre. As the Senator suggested, the Government has to pull this together because it must form some cohesive programme along the way. That is the first point. It is crucial that Northern universities and bodies are involved in that work. It cannot be otherwise, academically, for fear that a particular view is being taken.

It is a sad reality that some of the things we hoped for did not come to pass. While business and tourism are good in the North, I still think it was a great pity that David Trimble did not agree, despite my best efforts to convince him, to put Invest Northern Ireland and the IDA together. We took a joint approach to tourism and I thought a combined effort would have worked well for business. Mr. Trimble saw the sense of it, in fairness to him. He was a politician but he was also an academic. He saw the sense in the argument but was unable to deliver it. Invest Northern Ireland is doing a review of its work at the moment, which is important. I know IBEC has also been doing a lot of good work. It is important that these bodies are there.

With regard to the analysis, I do not have the figures but I have read them. While the South has experienced difficulties in the past 25 years, including a period of recession, the reality is that if one compares the movement in the economies of the South and the North, the North is way behind. In terms of growth and development, Northern Ireland has done well but I would have hoped 25 years ago that the rising tide would have lifted all boats fairly equally. That did not happen. It is still a challenge. That point applies particularly to some areas, for example in Belfast but also in Derry, where people feel they have not seen the lift they should have seen. The United States remains very important because it can still have influence. We need to do that. We want nationalist, republican, loyalist and unionist communities to be able to see the benefits. That is a challenge that comes with the Government's work with businesses and trying to give them a break.

The Senator asked about the rising generation, which has got used to peace. They do not see it as a bonus because they were not around when there was trouble although they know about it. They have to see other benefits. They have to see benefits in their communities, including infrastructural benefits. They have to see Northern Ireland's place within the European Union, hopefully, as well as in the union or out of the union. That is why the protocol was so important. I say constantly at Queen's University that the reality for now is that Northern Ireland has the best of all worlds. It is, for all intents and purposes, in the European Union and the customs union. It has internal trade, which is so important to some politicians in the North. They refer to the UK internal market, so let us agree to that. Northern Ireland also has trade with the South. Let us also agree that there are still some difficulties that have to be ironed out with the protocol in terms of the form filling and all of this. The point that is always missed is that business nowadays is not a matter of trucks driving up the road with bananas or oranges in the back of them. Big business nowadays is technologically advanced. It is the movement of technology. All modern technology is making finance, insurance and trade operate. That does not involve a boat moving across the sea. As I continue to say, some people think there is a guy on a boat somewhere in the Irish Sea who has a flag and stops boats to check them. That is not what is going on. Trade is trade, and the opportunities are immense. For the rising generation, we must show that reunification would mean good jobs and education, and a good future. We must show that we can harmonise things as best we can on this island. We must show we will all look out for each other and develop ourselves. As was said earlier, there are now 7 million people on the island. We are no longer small. It is a big and significant country now. We have caught up with many of our European partners in the size of our wealth and opportunities. For the period ahead with the protocol, whether its terms are amended or not, the opportunities are immense. I have done my best in meeting loyalist and unionist groups to point out that fact. One gets so far before they stop and say it is a different matter. There are, however, enormous opportunities.

We have to convince the rising generation that this is good; that what we did 25 years ago, updated to now, is good.

There is another point that is very important. You often hear people misguidedly saying the Good Friday Agreement needs to change or that we did not think of this or that. There is a review clause in the agreement that if at any time the parties want to sit down and make amendments, they can do so. We did that with the St. Andrews Agreement 16 years ago. It has not been done since. People are mistaken to say this was forgotten about and we cannot do anything about that. Sometimes I even hear some journalists saying the Good Friday Agreement is finished and does not apply. If somebody has good ideas about changing it, that is all they have to do. They can review it and amend it and there is no big deal about that. That is what we have to do for the rising generation. Many people who are graduating this year with masters degrees would not have been born the year we negotiated the agreement. They are the ones who are now coming into the workforce as highly qualified people. There are opportunities to build on it, if we could get the political parties to get the Executive and the institutions up and running. I was delighted during the pandemic to see Northern Ireland did well. The Executive did well. It worked well. Its members dealt with the challenges. They had big challenges but they handled it well. There were a few spats but there were millions of spats down here. I thought the Executive did very well.