Mr. Tom Arnold:

Very briefly and particularly to address Dr. Alasdair McDonnell's issue as to how we are to work together to get our message across, it comes down to two basic points. One is that we must have complete clarity of evidence setting out why this issue is so critically important to the future of this country and we need to pull together that evidence which will show that if we go down a particular road, it will have a particular consequence. Second, and hand in hand with this, and this goes back to Deputy Breathnach's point, we have to come up with corresponding solutions or proposals for solutions.

As regards who is responsible, there is a wide range of responsibility. The Government is responsible, as is this committee and other committees by the focus they are bringing to this issue, are responsible. We need to get the wider community talking about how much this matters. Some of this is being done through the All-Island Civic Dialogue forum, which met on 2 November and is meeting again on 17 February, and in the interim period a whole set of sectoral meetings have taken place. The more we can get clarity of thought and clarity of proposed solutions, the better. That is the basis for going forward. Organisations like ourselves also have a responsibility in terms of the types of connections we have with other think tanks in Europe to hammer home these same points.