Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I will be sharing my time with Senator Ó Donnghaile. It is good to see Mr. Durkan here today. I listened with interest to what he has to say. I want to thank him for his contribution to the Good Friday Agreement, because I think we sometimes forget how much it has achieved and how far we have come in a quarter of a century. As we are the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, we focus a lot on what has not been implemented as well.

These discussions are useful on that basis to look at how we may move those things forward.

Also, we need to be mindful of how much things have changed in the whole landscape, the political landscape and the landscape in the North, most recently on foot of the census. There is no longer a unionist majority, and Michelle O'Neill is the First Minister designate. All those things have changed. The other day I listened with interest to Mr. Durkan on "Talkback" discuss the referendum and preparedness for it. I think he referred to that in his statement in the context of the necessity to plan and to prepare for where we are at the moment. Mr. Durkan will have heard this from the whole island and the diaspora, but there is an appetite for people looking to the future and the constitutional future of the island.

Therefore, we and many other politicians and civic society have been calling on the Irish Government to set up a citizens' assembly on Irish unity as an appropriate citizen-led initiative to discuss the constitutional future of the island. I note that in Mr. Durkan's contribution, he talked about an open process of bringing in different perspectives and getting people away from fixed positions, and I completely agree with him. I saw that, as late as Monday night, Donegal County Council passed a motion - it was a Sinn Féin motion but it passed with the support of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - on writing to the Taoiseach to establish a citizens' assembly, so I think there is a real appetite for that.

I think Senator Black is present on Teams. She will probably talk about Ireland's Future's Together We Can event on Saturday. That is really significant. I think all the political parties are involved in that, as well as all the different organisations and the diaspora. There will also be speakers from the unionist tradition there. The big ask from the event is that the Irish Government plan for the future and establish an all-island citizens' assembly.

As this would be one of the most fundamental changes in our country since partition, how important does Mr. Durkan think it is to provide such a forum for people to contribute their views, to discuss what a new and united Ireland would look like and to have an informed discussion, whether about health, education or any of the other issues that may be in people's minds, about what things may look like in the future?