Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I support Senator Mansergh's proposition. I am glad the Minister rather went out of his way to reassure people in Northern Ireland that there will be no diminution of the position they thought they had reached through the Good Friday Agreement and the constitutional changes flowing from it. However, the architecture of the Good Friday Agreement is really based on the proposition that the State and the nation are not identical and that the nation can flow across the borders of the State. If we appear to be tinkering with that again, it could be destabilising.