Mr. Neil McCann:

The joining of the civil services would not be a major problem but I will say a bit more about it in the context of how the new nation might be formed. This comes back to Senator Currie's question about an entirely new state. Senator Currie's observations open a dialogue because all of the detail of this is not worked out and even if it were worked out in a document, that might not all be followed up. We were seeking a balance between what points to an outcome and what is practical.

In terms of creating an entirely new state, we do not want a blank canvas and that is not going to happen. It is sort of absurd and, from a legal perspective, if an entirely new constitution was to be generated, then there is a whole body of law that is built on legal decision-making and interpretation. That work of defining rights was famously done by some judges in the 1960s in particular. Ireland has a well-established position on having defined personal rights. A great deal of the work on that was done by Mr. Justice Brian Walsh in the Supreme Court at that time. It originated out of concerns about the fluoridation of water, which still happens. In Belfast, I have the pleasure of drinking slightly more chlorinated water that has not been fluoridated.

Part of our proposal seems to be unique - I have not seen it anywhere but would be glad if someone has thought of it - in that one can create a new state and adopt whatever from the existing states in place. Northern Ireland does not have an integrated, functioning state apparatus because it is spread over two jurisdictions. It is whatever is vested in London, which, obviously, would not continue after coming together and the powers devolved to the Assembly, which have come and gone at different times. The staggered process of assembly cannot continue, regardless of the Constitution and bringing the two parts of Ireland together. It is stop-start governance and is desperately felt here, in the North.

It would presumably work out that the mainstay of the new state would be the apparatus of the existing Constitution of Ireland drawn into the new state but it would not be a case of the North simply joining the South.

As for aspects of the North that function quite well, the movements of participative democracy are quite strong in many respects in the North. The zero-waste movement which has defined waste policy effectively has a strong influence in the Derry area and the Derry City and Strabane District Council. Cross-border elements are already in place. I am running out of time and just need 20 seconds to finish that-----