Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our new members to the committee. It is great to see some of them here today and I know we have received apologies from Ms Pat Cullen and Mr. John Finucane. It is good to have new people on board and I thank them for participating. I also want to pay tribute to Mr. Francie Molloy, Ms Michelle Gildernew, Mr. Mickey Brady and Mr. Stephen Farry who contributed so much to previous terms of this committee and to our recent report on finance and economics. I want to acknowledge their hard work. When we launch the report in the North, I hope they will come along.

It is important, before going to the witnesses, to also acknowledge the public inquiry that has been announced to examine the murder of Pat Finucane after 35 years. John Finucane, who is a member of this committee, his mother Geraldine and his family have fought for many years and I know it is the wish of all of this committee that all of the families would get the truth in relation to the legacy issues. We will continue to work on that separately and to support the families in every way that we possibly can.

I thank our two witnesses for being here today. This is a very important part of the work we are doing on the Good Friday Agreement committee. This work on women and the Constitution is following on from our finance and economic report and before that, our examination of health. What we want to achieve is a lot of what the witnesses have been talking about today, namely ensuring that the hard-to-reach voices are heard. I really value their expertise in that area and the work they have done. They have so much experience as well.

We have to get to the hard-to-reach voices but we also need a framework that will capture all of the work that is being done. I see the different work that is being done right across the island. We have to prevent a reinventing the wheel situation from occurring because there is huge knowledge there. What type of framework do we need the Government to set up to allow these conversations to be had so that all of the information is captured and funding is made available? How do we ensure that funding is made available not to reinvent the wheel but to be used in the best way possible? In terms of a financial structure and a structure from the Irish Government, how would the witnesses see that working?