Professor Colin Harvey:

I thank members for their questions. I will follow on from what Mr. Bassett has said. A few of the questions were directed towards the idea of dates so maybe I should say something about those. The spirit in which we have conducted this work is that these referendums are likely to happen, maybe sooner than people anticipate. In 2019, I made a suggestion around a possible date. The suggestion was born out of a sense of frustration, which I suspect many members of the committee share. I had been to one too many meetings where people stood up and said there needed to be planning and preparation but then everybody went home and did nothing. My view is that very little planning, project planning or homework would get done on the island of Ireland if the date was completely open-ended. My view, therefore, is that a timeframe is helpful to focus minds to get the work done. Again, I am not sure how much homework would get done on this island if there was no timeframe for the discussion.

It is notable that Bertie Ahern has followed my lead in suggesting the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. I had suggested the 25th anniversary. We notice there is a convergence in the debate around the next decade. Their seems to be an emerging sense that we are in a crucial decade for the constitutional conversation. As members know, Brexit has dramatically affected that debate. To emphasise and echo what Mr. Bassett has said, our contribution is to encourage and make sure people do the relevant planning.

On the Northern institutions, we have made clear that the guarantees and assurances continue unless and until alternative arrangements are achieved. We appreciate, as we acknowledge in our report, that there is discussion on a new constitution and new architecture. That is why we think there needs to be extensive civic engagement in preparing for that.

On the 50% plus 1 argument, to echo something Mr. Bassett said, we are a bit concerned that people are ignoring or neglecting the assurances, guarantees and protections that are already in the Good Friday Agreement around mutual respect, parity of esteem, equality of treatment and equality in rights. They will map forward on to the arrangements that we are talking, or they should map forward, and that is why we have talked about the sort of audit we described today. Rather than focus on the 50% plus 1 conversation - in our view it is 50% plus 1 - we need to spend more time thinking about the guarantees, protections and assurances that will reassure people and provide security, and that are there, in relation to carrying forward the values of the Good Friday Agreement.

The devolution conversation - the conversation around the Northern institutions - is profoundly helpful because, in my view, the Irish State is over-centralised. One of the great positives about this discussion is that it will encourage a wider discussion in Ireland around regional policy. Many regions on this island have been fundamentally failed, Donegal, for example, through the excessive over-centralisation of the existing State. If this conversation encourages a wider, deeper and more inclusive discussion about the over-centralisation of the current Irish State, that would be very welcome for people in the north west, for example.