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

Like my colleague, Senator Blaney, I welcome the presentations by Mr. McCann, Ms Diver and Mr. Quinn. They presented very interesting thoughts and proposals. Does the witnesses' group have members from both communities? It is unfortunate that in the presentation Mr. McCann had to refer to the events of the last week. We all hoped that was something we had left behind and that kind of activity and disturbance in communities had been consigned to history. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Some very good articles have been written in the days since those disturbances, including by Deirdre Heenan and Joe Brolly. They gave comprehensive analysis of some of the underlying causes and factors contributing to the violence, be it educational underachievement, poverty, deprivation or lack of political representation. I am sure there is a mix of all those factors. I fully understand that the issue is more complex than listing off a few factors but those are the issues we want to address.

Members of the committee have visited Belfast, Derry and other parts of Northern Ireland and, as we have discussed in the committee previously, I always found those visits to be the most productive from the point of view of informing us and engaging with people. As a committee, we have to get back to meeting communities and their representatives and hearing their concerns at first hand. As Senator Blaney and Ms Diver said, it is important that there is a focus on community endeavour and getting the best out of communities.

Ms Diver mentioned local government. Unfortunately, local government has been destroyed in this State. In Northern Ireland, there was a major rationalisation some years ago which led to huge local government districts. My neighbouring council area is Fermanagh and Omagh District Council. We lost town councils here and we have reduced numbers on the more rural county councils. I think that was a big mistake. There is nothing to beat having good representation and strong local representatives representing their communities and being very tuned in to what is or is not happening in communities. From the point of view of having more public representatives alongside the public participation networks, PPNs, those non-elected groups will never substitute for elected personnel in delivering services and meeting the needs and concerns of local communities.

One point we might engage on further is strengthening local government. Where there are substantial numbers of elected members on local councils, minority groups have an opportunity to gain seats through the proportional representation system. It is important in that respect to have six-seat or seven-seat local district councils as it provides an opportunity to have people of different political groupings represented.

It is important we do not take the focus away from elected representatives in meeting the many challenges that face our island as we go forward. There can and must be such partnership but the focus must remain on elected representatives delivering on the mandate they have been given. The mandate of every politician on this island is to implement the Good Friday Agreement. That mandate was given to us through the referendum in May 1998. Unfortunately, the potential of the agreement and its workings are not being maximised. I suggest that we would not have had the recent violence and disturbances if we had maximised the potential of the Good Friday Agreement.

I welcome the witnesses' comments today. They are positive and concern what we can do to shape the shared island and, I hope, a united Ireland in future, which I aspire to. If one community makes progress in advocating for its aspirations, it should never be at the expense of the other community or mean that one community loses while the other gains. There is a lot of work to be done by voices such as those of the witnesses. I know from Mr. McCann's work and that of others in Belfast over the years that he reaches out to different communities, particularly to those that are less advantaged. It is very important in the current context that work is focused on those areas as well.

It is very nice to see the witnesses and I thank them for their presentation today. There is a growing desire to talk about constitutional change and to put it on the political agenda. Any constructive proposals should be encouraged and considered. I thank the witnesses for their work in this regard. We have had a tendency over the last number of years to not talk about constitutional change. I believe that we must facilitate being able to do that in a non-judgmental and respectful way.

The Proposal Initiative document states that: "It has sometimes been assumed that an entirely new state was either unworkable, undesirable or both." I am not sure that this is true. There should be a spectrum of proposals that can be considered. It is important that we allow that to happen and that we allow people to come forward with different ideas. From reading The Proposal Initiative website, and for the purposes of clarity, is it The Proposal Initiative's idea that it is not about the North joining the South, that it is very much about the creation of a new constitution and a new state? Are the witnesses talking about starting from a blank canvas? While I do not discount the witnesses' view on that, I have reservations because it is very hard for us to start from a blank canvas. We have seen over the past number of weeks a reminder of that.

The Proposal Initiative is one proposal but there are lots of different views. There are people who will feel very strongly that it is about the North joining the South and that we retain our symbols to represent that. We must acknowledge that people have different aspirations and that when we talk about the Good Friday Agreement, really our common purpose there was to reach peace. This proposal, however, is very different because we are dealing with lots of different aspirations.

There is not only the spectrum of proposals, which I hope will come forward for people to consider, but there is also the spectrum of engagement. Some people are already incredibly engaged in this. They have their manifestos ready and know what their version of the new Ireland looks like. Then there are others who are apathetic or who are afraid, and who do not want to engage at all. We must understand that people are coming from very different starting points on this. We too want to encourage an atmosphere of different ideas and proposals coming forward. This is why today's meeting is very positive. I am not sure that we are at the consensus stage. We are at the conversation stage. I am especially interested in what Ms Diver said about engagement and the different ways to do that.

Looking at the Good Friday Agreement, what would the witnesses focus on going forward? If the past few weeks have shown us anything it is that perhaps are we looking at another stage for the Good Friday Agreement where we recommit ourselves fiercely to the principles, the spirit and the structures of the Good Friday Agreement, while at the same time respecting that people have different legitimate aspirations.

I may disagree with one part of The Proposal Initiative document, and I ask for clarity on it. Interestingly, it uses the word "conciliatory" and not "reconciliation". That made me think a lot about reconciliation versus conciliation, because there is a question to be asked around whether it is reconciliation that we seek. Have we ever been reconciled?

The opening statement today states:

The conciliatory approach, while the essence of The Proposal, however, is not its inspiration. The Inspiration is the realisation that the creation of an entirely new state is not only feasible but provides the best possible approach to the future of relations and administration on this beautiful, enchanting island.

I would say that we cannot leapfrog conciliation or reconciliation. They must go hand in hand. By creating a new state, we will not get away from our past or present. That work has to be fundamental to everything else.