Professor Colin Harvey:

I welcome the "Claire Byrne Live" programme and all contributions to the debate. I hope it is clear that what we have been stressing today is a need for a wide, deep and inclusive conversation, along with preparation and planning in advance. Nobody wants a referendum tomorrow or next week. People want to be ready and that is the spirit of what we are talking about.

We have emphasised very much in our work that one must stick to the Good Friday Agreement and its terms. Again, I urge the committee to revisit the relevant provisions in the agreement around this.

In terms of our suggestions, we have talked about a Citizens' Assembly. We have underlined in our work that we need wide, deep and inclusive citizen engagement. The idea of an all-island Citizens' Assembly is a great one. The proposal for a joint Oireachtas committee and a Minister is also welcome. A White Paper from the Irish Government would be incredibly helpful. Both Governments setting out the parameters of the process would be very helpful. I would be anxious about leaving this entirely to the Secretary of State. Both Governments engaging in advance would be helpful.

Ultimately, we are talking about preparing and planning in advance for a proposition. If a political party claims to be supportive of this constitutional objective, what will its representatives say on people's doorsteps - if we are allowed to do so at some stage - about its proposals? Ultimately, we are urging the committee to do the preparatory work in order that we have something coherent and credible to say about what the propositions of the Irish State, the Irish Government and those advocating change will actually be when these referendums happen within the next decade.

I appreciate the feedback on the report and we will take Senator Blaney's comments on board. I highlighted earlier that our report is one part of a larger body of work that we have been doing. We have supplied the committee with some of that larger body of work. We will happily follow up on that. That report is very much focused on the role of the European Union. We stressed in that report and in other work the need to plan and prepare in advance. We are aware this is not easy. However, I started the presentation with paying close attention to the nature of the current conversation. The level of engagement that is actually happening is striking. There is a risk that we fail to notice, for example, the level of civic unionist engagement in the current conversation and the level of engagement among those who find some of the old traditional labels deeply uncomfortable but want to have a sensible discussion about the constitutional future. There is actually civic unionist engagement, as well as engagement in this conversation by people who want to move beyond the old labels. We need to pay attention to that.

We very much see ourselves as part of that. In my academic capacity, I felt that what we have been doing is laying the groundwork on some of the more challenging legal questions. Other work that I have been doing in civil society is very much about engaging with civic unionism and with all elements of society. For example, a recent event held by Ireland's Future included engagement in the conversation from people from a unionist background. We should not underestimate or undervalue - it would be almost disrespecting it - the extent to which people are already involved in this process.

We use the language in the report and on the cover of planning and preparing for constitutional change. We have underlined in our work that the responsible and sensible thing to do is to manage and plan all this. In a sense, we very much agree with the committee that this should be an inclusive, broad and deep conversation. It benefits no one on the island, however, if we run away, hide from or use a variety of techniques to deflect from doing the hard work now.