Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is about the mechanism. The fundamental point I offer, and I am open to engaging in further discussion, is that the alternative route I suggested is better. It is a longer route but a more engaging one. A citizens' assembly in itself will not facilitate constantly meeting and engaging with people in a short period of time. Think of all of the work that went into the Good Friday Agreement, even the constitutional framework that emerged from the Good Friday Agreement such as the need to amend Articles 2 and 3 in the Republic and changes to the Government of Ireland Act. It involved the British Government, the Irish Government and the unionist, nationalist and republican and loyalist parties in Northern Ireland. It took enormous work for years to get to the stage we ultimately got to. I was a backbencher for part of it. I was a Minister for the concluding parts of the Good Friday Agreement. Perhaps I am influenced by the experience that it took that length of time and engagement to sound people out in order to identify what would be possible and not possible. A citizens' assembly is a different type of mechanism and I am not clear it lends itself to the type of work that was required for the Good Friday Agreement and the advances made prior to the agreement. I hope this explains where I am coming from.