Mr. Gerry Adams:

Go raibh maith agat. I used the term a series of such assemblies to leave it open and not to be prescriptive. The Deputy knows and we all know that citizens' assemblies have played a very crucial role in some of the big changes that have been made here on rights issues in the past decade or so. I attended many of those, along with Martin McGuinness, and made those citizens' assemblies. There are two others coming up soon on other issues, but for the Irish Government to refuse to refuse to plan for the future beggars belief. That notion of having almost dedicated assemblies on sectoral issues or just leaving that open is probably a way to go forward. They would look at the economy, public health services and other issues.

The main thing is that nobody wants, and we certainly do not want, a referendum just declared out of the blue. We want a process of preparation for it, of informing people, of debate, of discussion, of ownership, getting the expertise, drawing upon experiences, of using the European Union protocols, drawing upon our friends across the globe and particularly in the USA. It is just a no-brainer that there should be a citizens' assembly, and the challenge will now be for Deputy Leo Varadkar - Deputy Micheál Martin has missed his chance - as a new Taoiseach to consider this issue.

The Deputy is of course right about the legacy issues, but what is the Government doing about it? The Government is the co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. It is our agreement. The British have torn it up, so what do we do? Do we appeal to our friends across international fora? Do we use our diplomatic consular services to raise these questions? No, we do not. We make public statements that are probably not even heard in Downing Street as opposed to using the political strengths we have and our right as a Government and as co-equal guarantor of this agreement to make sure it is implemented fully. If Sinn Féin had signed up for the Downing Street Declaration, there would have been no Good Friday Agreement.