Mr. Martin Burbridge:

-----which sometimes seems like rather a long time. Part of the reason for that is that, for the past 24 months, we have been in regular consultation with our membership throughout the island of Ireland. We have gone to the provinces and have met people on four or five occasions. We have explained to them the issues that we are dealing with and produced up to now 12 governance bulletins, the latest one setting out the ideas I have shared with the committee today.

Generally, people are very positive because they recognise that our national structure has to change. It has to change for a number of reasons. One is that we have to have an organisation that is appropriate for the climate in which we live now and for the one in the future. We have to have better accountability and better responsibility by people at all levels, regardless of whether they are paid staff or volunteers taking on a role that requires people to have integrity and to do the right thing. We have to change, as Mr. Ian Elliott would be able to tell the committee. We are in the process of changing many of our policies to support that idea.

I cannot guarantee that our membership will approve it, but certainly from the discussions we have had, we have a large measure of support. I will ask one of our board members who works on the ground more than I do to expand slightly on that.