Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator O'Sullivan is substituting for Deputy Smith, who has had to leave for another meeting.

I thank Mr. Murphy for his presentation and for the work his group are doing. They seem to have done considerable work in the recent years. I find the conversation interesting because we are on a similar pathway but we seem to have different concepts of how we get there. We have agreement that unionist and Protestant communities on either side of the Border and their rights and British identity need to be respected and enshrined in any future arrangement. Where we part ways is how we get to a conclusion. I want to delve into that element of it. Please do not shoot the messenger but there is a train of thought that Ireland's Future is aligned to Sinn Féin. That view is not only held by unionists. That is also a view held down south and it is important that Ireland's Future addresses that. There is a fear in unionism. This train of thought is feared in unionism circles. I would like to know the response of the Ireland's Future representatives to that.

The work up to the Good Friday Agreement was crucial. There is no way that the agreement could have been established and pulled together under the terms of the citizens' assembly. The work behind the scenes was vast and went on for years. An extraordinary volume of work was done by many people behind the scenes to build trust in unionism. We seem to forget that unionist parties came to the table and agreed to the make-up of the Good Friday Agreement. They agreed to what was in the agreement. They agreed on the constitutional wherewithal for a referendum.

We have this idea that we need to drive on with the citizens' assembly, that it represents everyone, that we will have a border poll and all will be rosy. That is where I separate from Ireland's Future because we have a great deal of work to do to build trust in Northern Ireland. We cannot afford to have a border poll without gaining that trust. That is achievable. We have one shot at doing this right. I do not disagree on the question of a citizens' assembly but I believe the work being done at the moment by the shared island unit, as presented to us two weeks ago, is over and above what a citizens' assembly would do. Currently, the unit is reaching out to more than 130 community groups. I would like organisations such as Ireland's Future that represent nationalist views to take on and do more of what the shared island unit is doing by going into unionist and loyalist communities or to consider going into loyalist heartlands and have these conversations with the people there. They should bring in speakers from those backgrounds. Ireland's Future could do tremendous work by taking that approach.

Mr. Murphy's colleague, Colin Harvey, came in. I was critical of him when he presented an EU paper because it was not an EU paper and he had not consulted widely with unionists. Mr. Murphy and Professor Harvey could do critical work. I would like to hear Mr. Murphy's opinion about that. Is he open to doing that kind of work?