Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and their contributions. I welcome the fact they laid huge emphasis on the need for proper preparation in advance of a referendum. This is a theme that has gone through all of our meetings with regard to the need to plan for what those of us who aspire to a united Ireland and are passionate about it want to see. We want to see referendum preparations done in good time before any question is put to the people. It would be rather bizarre if the referendum was not held in Northern Ireland on the same day as in our State. It is important the people on all of the island decide on the same question on the same day. On 22 May 1998, we were privileged as a generation to vote as one unit on the question regarding adopting the Good Friday Agreement. We should always remind ourselves it was the first time since 1918 that the people of all of the island voted on the same question on the same day. I sincerely hope that when a referendum is called and the necessary preparation and processes are in place, all of the electorate in our country will vote on the same day on that particular question. It would lead to all sorts of problems if one referendum was held with another one to follow.

The witnesses' unit does academic work. Has it contributed to the new political orders or has it given advice, such as in eastern Europe when those countries, thankfully, from the late 1980s and early 1990s onwards, got their freedom? They had to set up new governance and new administrations. Was the constitution unit or were people in the college in any way involved in advising the new administrations there on the political structures that would best suit their newly emerging states? I thank the witnesses for their work and I hope we will have an opportunity for further engagement with them as we work towards a desired referendum.