Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Engagement with Ireland's Future (Resumed)

Photo of Niall Ó DonnghaileNiall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think the problem was something to do with my earphones. I was listening in a busy party room. They will just have to hear it now.

As I am conscious that I made a few points at the previous meeting, I will not eat into the time too much. Like other colleagues, I want to take the opportunity to welcome our guests back and to thank them for what has been a much more thoughtful and respectful engagement and dialogue.

I watched Michael Portillo's documentary last night. I do not know if anyone else saw it but it was a documentary on partition and the centenary of same. It concluded with Gerry Adams making the point to Michael Portillo, a former Tory Secretary of State, that the key way to build peace is through dialogue. That is the key ingredient and the core component. That is why the work of this committee and of Ireland's Future are so important and why the broad range of engagements, conversations and dialogues it is having are so important.

I made a point at the last committee meeting and I would be keen to get the visitors' views on it. I stated that in many ways, large parts of society were ahead of us in terms of the clear call for Government to respond to the need to prepare for constitutional change. Some colleagues took issue with that point and that is fair enough; they are entitled to do so. I will ask this question of our guests, because we ultimately ask it of all our guests at the committees; if they had one request of the committee in terms of what it can do and should be doing on this issue of promoting dialogue and a citizens' assembly going forward, what would that be? We have had citizens' assemblies before on issues that would have appeared to be contentious, intractable and fundamental and nobody said we could not have a citizens' assembly because an issue was too sensitive. Maybe that was said at the beginning but it ultimately came to the point where society led matters to a position where that reality could no longer be denied. I would love to get the views of the witnesses on that and to hear what they think we can do going forward from these worthwhile and useful engagements.

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