Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been privileged to listen to the contributions of a number of colleagues this evening. I slightly disagree with Senator McGahon. It is important that we hear Border voices, but we need to hear more voices on this island from people from a diverse range of backgrounds. We often hear the same voices in this debate again and again. The more voices we can hear on this discussion, the healthier the debate will be.

I agree strongly with my colleague, Senator Gallagher, on the need for the vision of John Hume to inform our thinking again. While there were many mothers and fathers for the Good Friday Agreement, John Hume had the vision and was the architect. We need to remember that contribution. When we talk about the vision for Ireland - I know Senator Joe O'Reilly mentioned it - we need to look to areas such as education and health, as well as considering symbols and so on.

We could just focus on the constitutional dimension and I could talk about in ten years' time when the Taoiseach and leader of my party, Colum Eastwood, leads a government with 30% unionists coming into this Chamber or indeed when President Andrew Trimble presents the Liam MacCarthy Cup to the Antrim hurlers. Maybe we need that kind of imagination to think about what things will look like. In reality it is about what difference it makes to people on the ground, North-South and east-west.

When considering identity, we need to remember the victims. I am conscious of what Senator McDowell said earlier. We need to try to provide some truth and some closure to those victims. It does not matter whether they were victims of someone wearing a uniform or a balaclava. Victims are entitled to as much truth as they can have if it will help to give them closure.

The bigger debate relates to issues of identity. If this island has 8 million or 9 million people, we would have more than 1 million who would identify as unionists, almost 1 million whose families do not come originally from this island and are neither orange nor green, some who call themselves Irish, some British, some Northern Irish, and many people on both sides of the Border who do not necessarily want to use any of those terms. We need to respect and understand that identity and those differences. We can consider practical measures because not enough dialogue is taking place. As Senator Gallagher pointed out earlier, more walls have been built, including walls of the mind.

After the Good Friday Agreement was signed, I sat on a youth exchange board, the Causeway Youth Exchange, which promoted North-South and east-west exchanges among young people in youth groups. That ceased to exist. There used to be far more support from the United States, from Boston College and others, with groups from the North and the South going to the US to engage there. That is not happening. With Britain outside the EU, the opportunities for our political leaders to meet on the fringes of EU summits have gone. All those exchanges that happened in the past are no longer happening. I ask the Minister of State to start to encourage exchanges among young people.

As Senator Dolan said, the Erasmus initiatives are important. I think we should take the lead on the Turing scheme that the UK is proposing and try to develop as many Irish-British exchanges as we can under that scheme.There are enormous possibilities in the areas of arts and sports. I have been on stage in Newry, Portadown and the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and have had wonderful experiences. I did not know those people's backgrounds, but we were able to share artistic discussion. Coming out of this, we need to rebuild the Good Friday Agreement. The more exchanges we can have among people, the better.