‘Irish unity’ petition to be considered

THE Oireachtas will today consider a petition calling for a Citizens’ Assembly on Irish unity.

The Joint Committee on Public Petitions is set to meet today – and will consider proposals on a wide range of topics.

Among them is a petition, seen by the Irish Daily Mail, which proposes the organisation of an allIreland Citizens’ Assembly to ‘negotiate and agree upon the basic structure of an independent 32-county Ireland’, and to ‘negotiate an all- Ireland referendum on Irish unity’.

It is also this petitioner’s view ‘that Irish people must decide on their own future instead of awaiting a border poll’.

However, it is understood that the Government feels establishing such a Citizens’ Assembly against the current political background ‘could only add to that uncertainty and division at what is already a sensitive time’ – and that on these grounds the call would be ‘premature’.