Mr. Declan Owens:

Senators face the task of needing to plan for the real prospect of a referendum on the future of the island of Ireland and what this means for the Irish Constitution. The climate and biodiversity crisis and ecological concerns are not just items on a menu for them to consider as criteria for a new constitutional future. We are concerned that fundamental ecological considerations will merely be absorbed into the discourse or treated as a box-ticking exercise. The two transitions that are already progressing on the island of Ireland have profound implications for Senators' deliberations. In the next five to ten years, we predict that the island will witness the ongoing convergence of these two transitions and related conversations. This will have a transformative effect on how Senators consider and understand the nature of the task before them and a new language will emerge to consider the constitutional question. The first transition relates to creating a home for all on the island of Ireland where we move towards a new and radically inclusive constitutional disposition. The second just transition relates to creating a society of climate and ecological justice rooted in the profound lessons of our history of colonialism, ongoing liberation and planetary solidarity.

Senators will be aware of the symbolism of ancient Irish myths such as the Children of Lir. These point to how we can rethink our relationship to the land and sea. This enhanced relationship can be achieved as a result of the appreciation of the core tenets of our constitutional future through the rights of nature and a pluriversal republic that fosters the fundamental importance of our Irish language, culture and identity. We have contributed to a submission to the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss relating to the rights of nature, which we referred to in the executive summary of our submission. I would encourage Senators to read that document.

The people and other species that live on the island of Ireland have an inevitably special association with the land, the sea and animals. The second republic that we envisage requires an opening up of ecological and Border thinking to allow for reconciliation, transgenerational justice and solidarity for people and nature following the onslaught of capitalism and colonialism. The design of the new constitution will be shaped by the language we deploy, which in itself will be radically reframed by the two just transitions converging towards a constitutional change shaped by, and with, the movement for climate and ecological justice.