Mr. John McCallister:

The key is that one is not competing against or trying to replace a representative democracy. That is the only comment I will make. I am supportive of the concept. It made such a huge contribution in the Republic that we could use it to start to tackle issues and get rid of some of the myths that every unionist is against an Irish language Act, liberalising abortion law, equal marriage or whatever it happens to be.

They can be useful for drawing out some of those, but not to compete with or replace your representative democracy.