Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will go first. I greatly welcome Ms Mercer, Professor Tonge and Mr. McCallister. It is a case of "long time no see" to Mr. McCallister. It is good to see him again.

This is an interesting debate involving thinking outside of the box. I will ask a number of questions. I do not really have a great deal to ask about and am more interested to see the response of political party members in Northern Ireland to these ideas.

Part of me wonders how the proposals that are being put forward will work out because, ultimately, we all know how hard-fought the Good Friday Agreement was. A key part of any democracy is getting all people around the table to agree. Everybody recognises that the agreement is not perfect and that changes may be needed but the key question for me is how one gets buy-in from the political parties and from the people of Northern Ireland. The key to anything, and, in particular, the Good Friday Agreement, because so much work went into it, is that when people get involved in something, one gets the return and the buy-in. If we are going to establish a citizens’ assembly, how do we get the political buy-in? Without it, I would have doubts about how anything that would be brought forward would really stick together. That is my key question. I thank all of our participants for their presentations.