John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. It was great to hear Reverend Karen say there is still a good proportion of people involved in unionism in Ireland who are open to dialogue. That brings me to back to the point made in recent weeks that there are three minorities as such in Northern Ireland, the nationalist minority, the unionist minority and the soft unionist minority in the middle made up of both sides of the community that could go either way.

On the citizens' assembly, it has worked well here in the Republic. I think it is the way to go. On another occasion we might, perhaps, have a conversation about the best way to engage that third minority I spoke of, which is the soft unionist minority who would be willing to engage and open up that dialogue, and how best we can include those voices in that debate.