Professor Colin Harvey:

Senator Marshall asked some great questions. I sense that - we may also be able to interpret recent election results in this way - there is an appetite for really progressive change in Northern Ireland. Although that is often presented in a certain way, increasingly across a range of areas the North is not that different from Dublin in terms of where people are at. Recent elections may have confirmed some of that. The sense is that the promises of the agreement across a range of areas, which the members have heard, have just not happened. People's aspirations for something better in respect of a bill of rights that would include rights for everyone have not materialised. A charter of rights for the island has not happened. Mr. Allamby is the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. That body has seen enormous budget cuts in recent years, which have made its task more difficult and needs to be addressed. It is great to see the work of the joint committee.

We are in the current mess because people have been involved in an exercise of sustained avoidance. The agreement contains principles such as parity of esteem, equal treatment and mutual respect. For too many years people have crossed the road or turned away and not addressed dealing with those concepts by legislating for them and making them meaningful in order that people can use them in practice. That must change. In my view, the Good Friday Agreement's values and institutions will only gain renewed life if that changes.

Although we have heard about the numbers being small, there is a sense in which, with courageous individuals like Emma and Jake DeSouza going into the public sphere which is always a risky thing to do, other people have the courage to emerge. They have to be commended on that. We should think about how it feels if a Northern-born Irish citizen is told they are really British even though they might think they have a right in the Good Friday Agreement to be Irish. The birthright provisions in the Good Friday Agreement concern everyone on this island.

Those who stand courageously on one aspect of that birthright provision do so on behalf of everyone potentially protected by it. They do so on behalf of everyone who wants to identify and be accepted as Irish, everyone who wants to identify and be accepted as British and everyone who wants to identify and be accepted as both. The birthright provision in totality matters and we need to see it implemented in practice. There is a conversation happening on the island, which will build in momentum. It is about how we will share this island in the future. The birthright provision clearly continues into the future. It is intended to continue into whatever constitutional arrangements emerge on the island. That makes it even more important to give thought to implementing that more effectively in practice.

The Senator is absolutely right that the Good Friday Agreement and some of the things we are discussing will challenge the British state and British Government. However, they will also rightly challenge the Irish State and Irish Government. The Irish Government and State will be challenged by ensuring the Good Friday Agreement is implemented in full along with the common travel area and all those things, which is absolutely as it should be.

The clue as to why the human rights framework is so important for the future of this island is in the title - it covers the rights of everyone on this island. Today's conversation is one part of that picture and that is why the human rights framework is so important.

Senator Paul Daly spoke about blame. Let us park blame and talk about solutions. One of the remarkable things about the presentations that particularly my colleagues have given this afternoon and the ongoing work in relation to this island and the North in particular is that we have plenty of solutions. I am beginning to think we are the masters at coming up with solutions. The difficulty we have and why I mentioned the implementation gap is because the difficulty rests in implementation. We have many solutions and no doubt the Senator is inundated with paperwork on them. We need to see them implemented. This is a big moment as regards implementation in the North. We need to grasp that.

The British and Irish Governments are co-guarantors of this agreement and they along with all the political parties need to show leadership in taking this forward, as civil society on this island has already.

The Chairman asked about the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. The Good Friday Agreement could potentially come into its own in the years ahead. The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is one part of that. It is excellent that it is now meeting more regularly. The institutions and values of the Good Friday Agreement could come into their own in the years ahead in terms of what we are facing. That will only happen in the context of the Brexit conversation and the negotiations that are happening in relation to the North now, if we stop engaging in an exercise of avoidance. We need to confront and face into the rights and equality crisis that has been outlined this afternoon. We need to address the failure to implement some of the instruments we have discussed - the implementation gap. These rights need to be written down. People need to be able to do something about these rights in practice if we want to give life again to the Good Friday Agreement.