Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

While the Good Friday Agreement was a huge leap forward and set a great international example, it was not without flaws. For some time, the Green Party has been calling for a constitutional convention involving ordinary citizens in Northern Ireland similar to the Citizens' Assembly. We need to recognise that a range of mechanisms in the Northern Ireland administration and assembly need to be reformed because of their sectarian nature. For example, forcing Members of the Legislative Assembly, MLAs, to declare whether they are nationalists or unionists and the use of petitions of concern are deeply flawed structures. Rather than focusing discussions entirely on what I would describe as the sectarian end of the political spectrum in the North, why has the Government not engaged with the likes of my colleague, Stephen Agnew, to examine ideas that might break the impasse, particularly as no such ideas are coming from a sectarian position in terms of administration of the Good Friday Agreement? My colleagues are trying to make the agreement work and this will require change. Will the Tánaiste break out of the DUP-Sinn Féin hold on this issue and start broadening the political debate to try to break the impasse?

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