I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill and giving us the chance to discuss the possibility of a united Ireland. Since I was a young fella, all I ever heard was that was what we needed and that we could not stop until it was achieved. There is so much involved in this. As I grew up, I saw the Troubles of the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. Every morning on the news you heard how many people had been killed during the night. There was The Miami Showband and all the people from the different sides killed in the mayhem, murder and slaughter every day. We are glad the Good Friday Agreement has moved us away from that, and I want to thank all those who created the environment where people North and South can at least go to work every day, feed their families and continue with a normal life. I can see it even here. We must be united here in this Chamber for a start, each and every one of us. We cannot be throwing Scud missiles across the Chamber at each other. We need to have a united front. This is a serious business. We need to know where this will lead us. We know the problems that we have here in the Twenty-Six Counties with housing, the cost of living, energy prices and all the different things. What will happen? We need to know what the end result will be and what we will achieve. Where will England be? I do not hear them saying anything about it. We must respect the unionists' views as well. They were here in the South of Ireland and they are working with us now. They are very welcome here and we appreciate them for the way they carry on their work and living normal lives. We want that for the people of the North of Ireland as well but we must have the conversation as to what will be the story for all the different things. We must be united in this Chamber and the people of the Twenty-Six Counties must, by and large, be in favour of reunification. We need to hear their views. There is so much we could be doing as it is. We should be inviting people from the Northern Assembly down here - its elected members. Whether it is with local government or the UK Government, we should have more interaction to hear and sense their concerns so we can move halfway. We must go halfway to meet everyone if we are to achieve agreement. I think a vote tonight is a bit premature. We should work more together and have more discussion rather than falling out with each other now. It can be achieved if we all work together and provide a united front.

Sentiment score: 0.12