Dr. Stephen Farry:

I just have two short questions about the two Rs rather than the three Rs. The first one relates to reconciliation and building a shared future. There is a school of thought that says the Good Friday Agreement almost froze the divisions in Northern Ireland regarding conflict management, but at the time the agreement was formulated there were a lot of aspirations and hopes that we would see an evolution in that respect. Does Lord Alderdice feel it is a glass half-full or half-empty in that regard?

The second question relates to reform, probably in a similar light. A particular set of structures were put in place that perhaps fitted people's world view of how Northern Ireland was constituted back in 1998 but, as Lord Alderdice appreciates, demographics and electoral fortunes have changed quite substantially since then. To what extent does Lord Alderdice feel the institutions need to be modified to reflect those changes and to take into account some of the experiences of blockages and vetoes over the past 25 years?