Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether Mr. Ahern is aware of this, but the Seanad is conducting a public consultation on the constitutional future of the island. We have heard young voices that have been incredibly powerful. We have had a mixture of different voices. Academics attended the last session, including some from the likes of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. It is incorrect to say we are not engaged in this conversation and putting it on the agenda. We very much are and the Seanad consultation is part of that. This committee will produce a report on it as well. We have seen excellent papers coming forward from the likes of the ESRI under the shared island unit relating to anybody's starting point, which is the nuts and bolts of how things actually work in health and education. We will build on that with the academic papers that have been referenced.

It should be everybody's priority that this conversation and the setting of the agenda is done in a generous and respectful way. It is not helpful if parties are told they are not interested in having the conversation about unity or constitutional change because they do not necessarily agree with being bounced into a citizens' assembly. There are other ways of doing that. I worry about the broader impact that has on people who are hesitant about engaging with this conversation and that if they open their mouths about, or do not agree with, one party's version of how it is done, they will be shamed about it. How can we have an inclusive outcome from a process if we cannot even agree there are different perspectives on an inclusive process to actually do it?

I was interested in what Mr. Ahern had to say about the citizens' assembly. It is very important we engage youth and, as the Cathaoirleach said, we engage communities. We are running engagement at community and political level. I would be interested to hear what Mr. Ahern might think of an Oireachtas committee or the likes of the New Ireland Forum, which had a role in the past, that kind of approach to bringing in all the perspectives, and, critically, how we avoid people feeling their voices will be silenced and shamed if they do not share the same perspective as others.