Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will make two points and try not to repeat those already made. I commend our Chair who chaired the committee most ably, inclusively and professionally. This was not about party politics. I hope communities, especially in the North, realise that this was a most sincere, professional attempt on our behalf to try to move things forward.

Unionists have genuine concerns. From my contacts and from those of other public representatives' contacts, I do not see the amplification of those concerns. There is a great opportunity here. Some experts, who have published, have said there are benefits flowing from this.

In my humble opinion, those concerns are driven by the cohort of party politics as distinct from the business sector and the people on the ground. Nevertheless, they exist, and the challenge we face is to assuage and allay unionist fears. No one on the committee set out to undermine unionism and fragment it, but it thinks otherwise.We have a job of work to do to convince them of that.

The second point I will make is covered well in the recommendations of the report. We have two recommendations. One relates to the democratic deficit which now exists in Northern Ireland. I quoted from a statement in the committee but, for the Minister of State's sake and for the record of the House, I will repeat it. It was a statement by the former leader of unionism, now a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party, Lord David Trimble. His view of the protocol, with which I do not agree, is as follows:

The laws that will apply to the economy, the environment, agriculture, workers rights, and regulations covering everything from building standards to use of weedkillers, no longer will be made at our parliament in Westminster or the local Assembly in Belfast. They will instead be determined by a foreign authority in Brussels.

I happen to disagree with him, but he has a point and I agree with some of what he is saying. That democratic deficit does now exist. I have mentioned this to the Cathaoirleach in his constitutional office. We are pushing an open door. The Cathaoirleach also recognises that a segment of the population of the island that has never been so close to Europe has no representation and no MEPs. They are always afforded a very warm welcome when they come here but those visits are not made on a formal, structured basis. In the long term, that might require constitutional reform, but in the short term, if these are our fellow islanders, their voices and concerns must be heard. This should not be done through committees with good intentions whose remits encompass Europe; they should be there in their own right. It is their voice. If no one else will give them a direct line, their fellow Irish people in the Republic of Ireland have to leave the door open to them and be proactive in giving them a formal voice. Two of the recommendations in this detailed report, recommendations 31 and 32, which I am sure the Minister of State has read, cover this issue. It was a matter of serious concern for the committee.