Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for his positive comments. It does say in the section he referenced "including but not limited to". I was very conscious that I was bringing a particular perspective to the Bill I was writing, and that by bringing my perspective, I was surely missing other people's perspective. If that makes it as far as Committee Stage, and if Senator Clonan's suggestion were to be brought by way of amendment, I would certainly be opening to accepting an amendment along those lines. I do not have the full solution here and other perspectives may bring value.

I agree with the Senator that disruptive voices can be very useful because we can engage the same research and it will give the same answers on everything else. I will point to the public consultations run in Wales. Sometimes public consultations can be very much going through the motions, with the same people in the room. The Wales We Want approach, on which Ms Davidson will be able to speak much more authoritatively, reached into communities in a way that many public consultations do not. It was extremely important to get the disruptive voices and to secure buy-in. As I said, Ms Davidson will speak on this far better than me. There is a real sense of ownership around the Office of the Commissioner for Future Generations in Wales, which comes from the fact people in Wales really were invited to engage with it in a meaningful way while it was being developed.