Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Ms Justice Laffoy and her team for being here with us. I also express my thanks to the members of the Citizens' Assembly because they gave of their time willingly and what they did was not easy. There has been a fair amount of discussion in the media about the process and, as is the case with a lot of things, when somebody does not like the outcome they criticise the process rather than engage with it. Can Ms Justice Laffoy elaborate on the 13,000 submissions? I followed the proceedings online and I read some of the submissions. There was a huge amount of duplication and a lot of cutting and pasting. Ms Justice Laffoy said the feedback from the members of the assembly was positive but could she elaborate on it? Can she put our minds at rest and say that the people on the Citizens' Assembly were satisfied with the outcome and that they had an opportunity to engage with all the evidence and the information they felt they needed before coming to their conclusion? There has been a lot of discussion about the process and it would be of benefit to the committee to hear that. Ms Justice Laffoy also said the legitimacy of the recommendations was built on the robust process. Perhaps she could also elaborate on that.

Everybody acknowledges that the work of this committee is going to be hard. Having chaired the assembly, Ms Justice Laffoy now has a huge amount of experience in the subject. Is there a particular group or individual that she feels may be able to assist us in any way, shape or form, and who might benefit this committee by appearing before it? Given that there was no vote, is Ms Justice Laffoy satisfied that the ancillary recommendations constitute a majority view of the members of the Citizens' Assembly? As I have said, when there is disquiet and people do not like the outcome of something they tend to attack the process and we do not want to have to keep going back over the process. We want to take it as given that the work was conducted in a robust manner.