Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus lenár gcuairteoirí chomh maith as an gcur i láthair. I acknowledge Reverend Kyle Paisley’s use of cúpla focal in this Chamber. We had Linda Ervine here a few months ago for Seachtain na Gaeilge. Before we get into the constitutional issues, I want to make the point that the Irish language is a great unifier in terms of the ties that bind us together. Go raibh céad míle maith agat.

Mr. Forkan spoke about the mechanics of this debate. I think it is very much a consistent point which emerged this morning. I have no doubt that it will emerge in the course of the rest of this afternoon. I do not disagree with him by any stretch of the imagination. All of the themes he mentioned, including workers’ rights, the economy, social justice, housing, health, policing and justice, are key issues and need to be well thought-out, considered and planned for. I believe that at times when we have been engaging in this debate, we have been talking as if the discussion is not happening. The discussion is happening. We need to give this discussion a home and locate it somewhere where it can be facilitated, enabled and resourced. A good place for that would be a citizens’ assembly although I do not believe it would be the be-all and end-all. In the first instance, and this is just a small anomaly of partition, as the Chairman will be aware a citizens’ assembly in this State involves a random selection of 100 citizens from the electoral register here. There is not much good in having a citizens’ assembly on this matter that does not also include citizens from the Six Counties. Small anomalies like that need to be sorted. My question in this regard may be answered by any and all of our contributors. Would they feel that a citizens' assembly or a similar forum would be a useful space in which to locate that discussion in the future?

I must declare an interest because Professor Ashe was my lecturer in university so she is partly to blame for me being here. I do not want to name anybody in particular but it is fantastic to have Ms Eilish Rooney here alongside her. She is a quiet champion of peace, equality, human rights and justice who has done phenomenal work over a long period of time. It will be crucial that people like her are part of this debate in the future.

On the research issue, Professor Ashe is correct in that we need to include those lesser heard voices, with women’s voices being such key voices. Within that, there are multiple communities and voices we need to hear. Within the women’s sector and women more generally, we want to ensure we have "hard-to-reach" voices, a term I personally hate. I am talking about women of colour, women from deprived communities, women who are former combatants and women who have been to the fore in peace-building. We need to ensure we get them into this dialogue. Can I have our guests' immediate view on how we can best achieve that? I agree that we need many voices in this, and I include ourselves in that. We engage in this stuff fairly regularly because it is our meat and drink, but it will be very crucial that we hear all these voices. The same goes for the trade union movement, which Mr. Reidy can reach, and for the community and voluntary sector. We are going to need everybody to put their shoulder to the wheel to ensure we get those voices coming, through our guests, into the space that hopefully will be created sooner rather than later to give a home to this debate. Is é sin an méid uaim.