Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and I wish Mr. Thomson bon voyage. It is 24 years since I and Paul Farrell served together on a committee that reformed Irish company law, and it actually succeeded and was a very worthwhile proposition.

The points I want to make are as follows. There is a really serious issue as to the clarity of proposition. The Brexit referendum shows clearly that if you ask people to vote for Irish unity as a concept, or for the UK to leave Europe simply as a concept, you are asking people to buy a pig in a poke. Therefore, the proposition must be understood by everybody as to what exactly is on the table. Senator Currie has made the point and I think it is one that needs to be clearly understood.

We had a forum on a new Ireland, or whatever it was, and it looked at a confederal solution, a unitary state, a federal state and whatever else. It looked at all of those three models, but when it comes to a referendum, one of those models is going to have to be on the table. One cannot have all three on the table and just a general licence to think of what unity means after the event. That is why the conversation and the work Professor Harvey has mentioned needs to be done, especially on the side of those who want to have a referendum on this issue. The unionist people in Northern Ireland and unionist politicians, as I see them, do not want to have a process which has only one end, and that is the end of their political aspiration. Those who are not unionists have to come up with a package which can attract a majority in Northern Ireland - a good majority - and it has to be a good package. That is why I believe strongly we must decide what kind of model we are talking about. There is no point talking about one of three models or asking people vaguely to select between three pigs in a poke. They are entitled to know precisely what they are being asked to vote for in a referendum.

I strongly believe a unitary state is not going to happen in the next 20 years. I believe the unionist people in Northern Ireland - when I say the unionist people, I am talking about people with a British identity - if any of them do support Irish unity, will most confidently support a confederal model where the two bits of Ireland carry on to some extent as they are and share their common membership of the European Union.

I put it to Paul Farrell that, if there were a confederal Ireland, there could be a confederal seat of government of a limited kind. We do not have to rebuild Dublin in Armagh or something like that. There could be a Canberra, a Washington DC or a Swiss arrangement, where the seat of government or the confederal institution would be a smaller thing, and I would be quite happy to have it located north of what is now the Border.