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

I thank both witnesses for coming in. Listening to them and reading their statements gives a sense, as Mr. Montgomery said in his piece, of a long, hard-won process that came to an end at breakneck speed. We also get a sense from the way it was described that the purpose of the agreement was to try to end certain things - paramilitary and state violence - and bring about demilitarisation but the same level of thought was not given to what it was creating or moving towards, other than the strict constitutional or legal parameters around it.

It is also very interesting to hear from Mr. Montgomery about the different types of engagement. We were talking last week about Jeffrey Donaldson having said that unionists were not engaged on the equality piece. They were not against it; they just were not engaged. Mr. Montgomery mentioned Sinn Féin not having had the same engagement on strand one as it did on other pieces. That is very interesting to hear at this remove because it speaks to what was on the minds of people at the time. I say that not in a critical way but simply to try to develop a better understanding.

One of the most interesting things is the space we are moving towards. Ideally we are moving towards a peaceful but reconciled island or part of the island. I wonder about the extent to which the witnesses, if they were to do it again, would look at the political structures. Mr. Montgomery spoke about the designation of unionist and nationalist blocks being unhelpful in that way - I believe "entrenching division" was the phrase used - and about the d'Hondt system spreading everything. One gets the sense 25 years on that not enough has happened on reconciliation, despite the agreement leading with that, although I respect what was said about symbolism and softer language other than the constitutional stuff. If that is the case, does Mr. Montgomery believe the political structures have contributed to a move towards the edges rather than the entrenchment of the moderate centre? While the Alliance Party did very well in the most recent election, if we take the period overall, there appears to have been a move away from the centre and towards the edges. I wonder to what extent the political structures contributed to that.