Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thanks a million to Dr. Farry and Mr. Campbell. It is always good to see them. I thank them for their submission. Have they any thoughts about what this could look like? There was mention of whether regional devolution would still be there and a continuation of regional devolution in Northern Ireland. They are raising lots of the things that need to be addressed but what thoughts do Dr. Farry and Mr. Campbell have about what it could look like or what we need to examine for this to be looked at with the thoroughness they describe?

We heard from Dr. Norman Hamilton about reconciliation and I think we all agree there has not been enough attention on building a reconciled society. One of the things Dr. Hamilton suggested, and the Presbyterian Church did also, was that a tone be set on reconciliation as part of this discussion and whether we need to go further and have some sort of engagement across parties and governments about what reconciliation actually means, because we have never done that. As time goes, on reconciliation means different things to different people. What is Alliance policy on reconciliation? I am aware the party is working to build one but do we need a shared vision of what that is? What are our guests' sense of things at the moment?

Dr. Farry mentioned decisions being taken in a vacuum. Where does he see things going? We all know what the Alliance Party wants to see happen in relation to a review of strand 1, but bigger than that, where do our guests think things are? Dr. Farry also mentioned strand 2 and the opportunities around North-South co-operation. That co-operation needs to be pushed, regardless of this conversation. Where does it need to be pushed?