Lord Alderdice:

I am glad Ms Begley reminded me of the civic forum because it was raised earlier and I did not make a comment on it. It is a real shame it did not continue. The civic forum was in place when I was speaker and I engaged with its chairman. It could have developed more momentum. By sitting in the Senate Chamber in Stormont and bringing about an approach that was energetic, committed and proactive, it could have survived longer. I very much hope that is an element of the Good Friday Agreement that could be returned to because it is very important to have other ways into government discussion rather than merely through elected representatives, not that they are not absolutely key.

With regard to citizens' assemblies, it is always positive to try to get people involved in the discussion. However, if it is simply people who already largely agree on what the outcome might be, in a case such as the question of a united Ireland, and if the only people who come along to participate, in an energetic way and in any sort of numbers, are those who are already convinced that is what they want, I am not sure it achieves what citizens' assemblies are meant to achieve, that is, to bring together people with different perspectives and to try to find a way of reaching agreement beyond political partisanship.

If it simply represents the views of people who already agree with each other and the others do not want to or do not come along, I have no objection to it but I am not sure that it fulfils things as fruitfully as one might hope would be the case. However, if it becomes possible to have significant numbers and representation from those who take a different perspective, then something may well be able to come from it. The perquisite is that there are people who differ from each other and are prepared to disagree without damaging each other.