Mr. Wally Kirwan:

We have touched a certain amount on the future beyond the day after tomorrow. We should not lose sight of the fact that the institutions are down at present. Our first priority at the present time must be trying to get the institutions back to get the dynamic of the Good Friday Agreement working again. Regarding how one does that, I wish to speak about citizens' assemblies and the degree to which the unionist community or representatives of it have taken part in past efforts. During the week, I had occasion to go back and look at the publications of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. One hears a certain amount of commentary regarding the different forums that the unionists did not really take part in. It is suggested that the unionist parties, as such, did not take part in either the New Ireland Forum or the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. I was reminded looking over the publications of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation that there was tremendous engagement by the unionist community in the work and deliberations of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. All of the Protestant churches were involved, as were a number of interested citizens' groups like the Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland and so on. There was quite strong engagement.

While, in the first instance, we need to prioritise getting the institutions up and going again, there is a benefit, as shown in the work of the forums and the National Forum on Europe, of getting out to the public. I see merit in something similar to citizens' assemblies, but perhaps not so directive as some of the assemblies that have taken place on different topics so far. A degree of flexibility needs to be retained such that one can react to events possibly proceeding faster. I would not like us to be hung up on a particular rhythm of citizens' assemblies. By all means, get out there and have discussions and try to get engagement from the unionist community, as there was at the time of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, but it should still be directed at political level here by the Government and elected representatives of the people.

In the Downing Street Declaration, as Dr. McKee mentioned, there was a section stating that the Taoiseach would check what practices or dimensions in the South were a problem for people in the North. A lot of work was done on that. Surprisingly good progress was made, even on things like symbols. The Forum for Peace and Reconciliation had a number of subcommittees, as one would expect with a body similar to the present one. They ran out of political chairmen. I was acting as chairman of the subcommittee established to deal with obstacles in the South to reconciliation. Looking back, considerable progress was being made in that committee when, unfortunately, the bomb went off in Canary Wharf and the forum went into a limbo from which it did not really emerge. It is worth digging out that work and looking at it again because considerable progress was made. There was good engagement by the unionist community. We need to get the institutions and the North-South Ministerial Council up and running. I was reading over the files at the National Archives last week relating to movements towards the implementation bodies; there was great momentum there. We should be able to get back to it. A lot will depend on the situation as regards the protocol and whether we can break that impasse as a first step, then getting the Good Friday Agreement up and running again and, in a measured way, taking up the dimensions of a future Ireland as well.