Dr. James Moran:

To mirror what has happened in the citizens' assembly with 99 citizens, and what members are deliberating on now regarding the recommendations in this committee, we need some way to have a national civil dialogue on how we interact with the environment in general, on climate, nature and water, and where we are going with this. This would be a vital thing to happen in the next 12 months. I know we are going to have a big civil dialogue with elections over the next 12 to 24 months. In that space, I said last week in a private conversation that it is like we have a full moon all the time in an election year. It is not the time for a civil dialogue, and it will get more polarised during that.

Once the election cycle is finished and we are at the start of a new one, there will be an opportune time during the programme for Government negotiations. Something could be set up in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to allow, in parallel, a national civil dialogue, including communication and information campaigns around such things as climate, biodiversity and water. Perhaps not a lot would come out of it but it would take some of the heat out of the situation after the election cycle and after all the misinformation and polarisation that will happen as part of the cut and thrust of the coming time. That will set us back a while so we need a response like that. I do not know how it could be done but one thing we have learned from the citizens' assembly is that when people sit down together with a respectful attitude, much can be achieved in a relatively short period.