Dr. Alan Renwick:

We very much agree with Senator Black's sentiments. Indeed, when we have spoken to people from the unionist community, we have often heard it said that talk of unionism not engaging is rather offensive. A judgement is being made on unionists for not participating in a particular conversation defined by some parts of the community, whereas there are other forms of conversation in which, perhaps, many members of the unionist community would be very happy to participate.

It goes back to the point made by Senator Blaney and others in the course of this conversation that finding ways of having conversations about the constitutional future that are not necessarily teleological in supposing a particular outcome might assist in the process of bringing in all voices. In this particular project, we have focused on the process involved in referendums on the unification question and, in a sense, on a particular possible constitutional future for Northern Ireland and Ireland as a whole. Clearly, there are other possible constitutional futures as well and in doing this project we have not sought to make any judgement among those different possible constitutional futures.

The key point we want to reiterate in this project is that the process involved in referendums on this question will be complex. There is no perfect process that does not create problems of some kind along the way. Understanding that process and thinking very clearly about how to do it in the best possible way that allows people to make an informed choice, allows an inclusive discussion and maintains stability is a fundamentally important thing. We are very grateful to the committee for engaging with us for two whole hours on exactly those questions. We look forward to continuing these conversations in the future.