Ms Adrienne Reilly:

What I meant was that he was highlighting an argument made by others who believe we do not need a bill of rights. I should have stuck to my script.

The Human Rights Consortium is encouraged by and welcomes the recent statements made by the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach in which they spoke about their commitment to support the bill of rights process.

As the committee is aware, the Agreement was written in such a way that there could be no veto by the Northern Ireland parties on a bill of rights. We call on the committee to press the Irish Government in its role as a co-signatory to the Agreement to take all necessary steps to ensure the UK Government fulfils this outstanding obligation on a bill of rights without further delay. I hand over to my colleague Ms Sara Boyce, who will briefly outline some specific requests we have for the committee.