Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. It is good to see Mr. John McCallister again. I always thought he was a thoughtful and conciliatory parliamentarian. In terms of the submissions that are being made, the proposition is that the form of parliamentary assembly or democracy that is in place in the North is satisfactory.

I think we all agree that it is not an ideal scenario. Ideally, in any democracy, you want a government and an opposition with legislation debated back and forth. In no normal democracy would the DUP and Sinn Féin be in coalition government together. They are diametrically opposed on social, economic and constitutional matters. It is not just a question of whether we should have a united Ireland or a United Kingdom. We disagree with the DUP on a whole range of matters and would never be in coalition together in a normal democracy but this is not a normal scenario. I put it to everyone, not only the contributors but all the members of the committee, that the reason we came to this type of Assembly and Executive under strand 1 of the Good Friday Agreement was to reflect the experience particularly of the nationalist community of unionist misrule over many, many years. We needed to have protections and guarantees for the nationalist community particularly and shared government was what we arrived at. It is not ideal at all. It is very regrettable that the civic forum element of strand 1 has been disposed of, that it is not up and running. It is really healthy to have a citizens' assembly and a civic forum. It is badly missing in the North. I would like to believe the members of the committee, TDs, Senators and MPs, would have the humility to accept that we do not have all the wisdom and that there are people in civic leadership who may have a lot to contribute who may be better connected to communities than ourselves, God forbid. There is definitely a need to put back in place a civic forum-citizens' assembly that could input into the governments.

Changing the structures will have to be negotiated out. That will be a very sensitive matter. We should be open to changes. As the presentations pointed out, the problem has been that we have made the changes, whether it is the St. Andrews, Stormont or New Decade, New Approach agreements, it is always from a crisis. It is not proactive, it is responding to a crisis and that is accepted. Sinn Féin would like a citizens' assembly to look at the whole issue of Irish unity and a border poll to prepare properly for that. That is the context in which we would like to see that but it could look at transitionary arrangements and the form of governance we have on the pathway to that border poll or potential Irish unity down the line.

Sinn Féin does use the title of joint First Minister for Michelle O'Neill. It is correct that it is, in all reality, a position of joint First Minister. It would be good to have that formalised. I agree that the criteria for a border poll is very vague and not satisfactory at all. This committee has corresponded with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland seeking clarification on that. There are not that many failings in the Good Friday Agreement but that is one of them.

Would Mr. McCallister acknowledge there is a concern in the nationalist community about moving away from firm power sharing protections? How would he, as a unionist, reach out to the nationalist community and reassure it on those issues in the pathway to change?

Will Professor Tonge and Ms Mercer comment on how we deal with a civic forum? I would be interested to know why they thought it was removed, and why it has not been put back in place. I certainly cannot understand that. I will pass over to Mr. Finucane.