Ms Noelle O'Connell:

On the referendum, I believe it was one of the Senator's esteemed, distinguished colleagues who said that a referendum is a means of getting an answer to a question that was not asked. With that health warning, in terms of treaty change, what we feel very strong is, as the process evolves and people buy into it, it is really important that the process is not allowed to wither on the vine and is not just filed away. There is that desire to keep the momentum and that dialogue and engagement going. We should not be afraid of treaty change if that is what is required, but we do not believe it should be the starting-off point. There is a lot that can be done under the existing treaties and clauses. There are opportunities via the passerelle clause. We are calling for a stronger and more robust Union that is more agile and able to be more proactive in reacting to the views and inputs of its citizens. It is something we feel strongly about. It is also something that came across throughout the dialogues we engaged with as part of this process. I am sure Deputy Ó Murchú will agree, through being involved in the conference plenaries, it is something that came across from all of the European citizens and the stakeholders, Members of the European Parliament and national parliamentarians. There is broad buy-in and ambition. If we have seen anything, it has been the value of that collective or shared EU. With the departure of a member state on the west and an invasion on the east, we cannot afford to take lightly or for granted our membership of the Union.

That was a great question about the polling methodology. We commissioned RED C to carry out the poll and the questions are delivered as statements. To aid people's ability to respond and engage with the question, they are put as statements, for example, "Ireland should remain a member of the EU". They are then asked, "Do you agree strongly, slightly, disagree strongly, disagree slightly or do not know?" We see a big role for ourselves in working with the "do not know" cohort. In many of the questions, we saw quite high levels of "do not knows", indicating perhaps an understanding deficit or information deficit. In our role of communicating on all aspects of Ireland's relationship with the EU, that communications work is something that we want to continue to ramp up.