Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Some sort of mechanism needs to happen to ensure that the voices of marginalised people are heard, such as women, disabled people, immigrants and people who have come from other countries, people from a Traveller background and so on. They are the people who are not confident or involved in mainstream politics where all the shouting is done. I am talking about my own situation. It is very important that this committee has been looking at what constitutional change will mean and the best way to ensure all voices are heard. We need mechanisms on the ground where people feel comfortable speaking about what actually unites them and what the real issues are on the ground that affect them. I think they will find a lot more commonality across sectors than division.

The witnesses talked about the women's centres and the important work they do and I appreciate that. I presume they are cross-community, or is there opposition to them being cross-community?