Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Professor Suiter stated that the clear preference would be for a citizens' assembly in the Six Counties and the Twenty-six Counties. That would be the ideal situation. Another option would be a citizens' assembly in the Twenty-six Counties alone but I am not at all enthusiastic about that in the context of a decision being made for the island. Is there a third option? If there is, has she considered it? What happens if we try and try again but there is no prospect of the British Government co-operating with input into a citizens' assembly?

Can she make a third recommendation as a way forward so that no one stops a constitutional and peaceful march forward? Could we tweak our legislation and use imagination to have a random selection from the Six Counties to do that in a fair way whereby it is vetted with regard to the demographic and political background? Is there an option C?

My next question is for Professor John Doyle. Did his group make a recommendation? If he is going with the more inclusive Stormont franchise, would it not necessitate being generous and inclusive in Ireland, in the Twenty-six Counties, to extend the franchise to British citizens? We are then into the complexities because it would require a constitutional referendum as a prerequisite to doing that.

My final question is to Mr. Thumann. Reunification in Germany was meteorically and miraculously fast; it happened at huge pace. Brexit was a disaster. Is there a lot of study on German reunification as to how they pulled that off? Were there early days when it was on a knife edge? It all happened so blindingly fast for such a big call to be made, with the Bundestag and the chamber.