Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I repeat that I support the broader initiative of the civic forum. Its costs will not be large and it will come either from my Department's Vote or that of the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is more about getting the initiative up and running. We made an effort to do so when the Northern Ireland Executive was previously running and it had broad support from the trade unions congress, employers' and agricultural bodies and political groups. A civic forum would be very beneficial, allowing a North-South basis for groupings, which would normally not be in the political domain, to actively engage with each other on civic society matters. While much of that is happening informally and on an ad hoc basis, a civic forum where people representative of the broad sectors in society could be engaged would be beneficial. I have made that clear time and again in discussions with the NIO, the British Government and various interest groups in Northern Ireland.

The All-Party Committee on the Constitution has two or three initiatives in front of it which will take it to the end of the life of this Dáil. It has been involved in working on the social and family aspects of the Constitution. Its chairman, Deputy O'Donovan, is anxious to finish that work. A number of its reports have been sent to the Departments and agencies on matters which will be dealt with through legislation. Others will involve forming a group of constitutional amendments. There are seven areas where there is ongoing work and it may take a number of years to deal with them. It is hard to bunch them together and take a number of amendments. Officials in my Department, the committee secretariat and relevant Departments have been working on that for some time.

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