Professor Fidelma Ashe:

The Cathaoirleach is covering the key questions that arise when we think about any process of constitutional change. It is difficult to know where to start. The difference between Uganda and the island of Ireland at the moment is that Uganda had a plan. Members will recall that in the Scottish referendum there was a 670-page plan. Uganda had something similar. However, you do not have to start at that point. That can be a part of the process but there is a piece of work to do before any plan emerges and that can inform any plan. The key issue is to reduce the fear that talking about constitutional change will somehow make it happen or that it will end up in arguments. If it is handled correctly and if discursive spaces are created in a particular way, it does not have to be as divisive as we might expect. We have had unionist women, Irish nationalist women, women from new communities, LGBTQI+ women - all different kinds of women - and we have been able to have a conversation about these issues, to put it bluntly, without anybody falling out with anyone else. It is possible.