Ms Emily O'Reilly:

I used the expression "casting the net wide". We have had a brief discussion on this and we have been looking at ways of doing that. We do not want the selection to be just a rounding up of the usual suspects or of the usual suspects thinking they are the only people in the frame for this. We want it to be so widely known that we are looking for potential commissioners that everybody with a vital engagement with these issues knows about it and sees himself or herself in that frame. We want it so that they need not think that because they are not an academic or a lawyer, they could not possibly be part of it.

We will look at ways to ensure that engagement happens and that the net is cast as wide as possible. For example, we intend using social media and inviting younger people to participate. There is no reason that particular part of the demographic cannot be reflected also. We know there is a certain urgency with regard to doing this, but we really want to do it well and do not want people to have preconceptions about the sort of people who, potentially, will end up on the commission.