Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for coming to the committee and for his presentation. I compliment the initiative as well as the staff in the Department of the Taoiseach who are working on it, Ms O’Donoghue and Mr. Duffy. They have led a phenomenal programme of engagement. I have had the opportunity to participate in some of it and I know it is very strong, constructive and creative.

The work of this committee has been very interesting. We have engaged in a range of constitutional questions and questions around reconciliation, education and the development of the island. What stands out most from the Taoiseach's presentation is the political context he set out at the beginning and the end. The agreement is driven by a desire for reconciliation, mutual trust, understanding and a basis on which the island can move forward together based on those concepts, ideas and ideals. The value of the shared island dialogue is that it goes through so much of this in practical terms and identifies practical ways of building relationships and simply meeting more people from different communities on the island. That is very constructive work.

I very much respect the Taoiseach's background and position on this and the language he uses in describing it. I see it as very constructive and as building a genuine interest in reconciliation with the unionist community, in particular, with which we need to build better relationships all the time. I very much respect that historically and respect the work the Taoiseach does today.

Irrespective of the practical work of the shared island unit, what can this committee do? What can the Government do? What can we do as a people to reach out and do more in terms of reconciliation? What more can we do in terms of understanding and respecting difference and getting to a genuinely personal appreciation of different perspectives before we can build any different constitutional future? What is the Taoiseach's more broad political reflection on what we can do?