‘BE READY FOR BORDER POLL’
Call for citizens’ assemblies in North & South
CITIZENS’ assemblies should be held in the North and the Republic to lay the groundwork for a border poll which could be held in the next decade, a TD has claimed.
Fine Gael’s Neale Richmond will present his new paper Towards A New Ireland at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, tomorrow.
The paper takes an in-depth look at the realities of a united Ireland and the creation of a new state, focusing on areas of government, healthcare, education and the economy.
Key to his proposals is that people identifying as British in a new Ireland would retain the same rights to citizenship and identity as is afforded to people in Northern Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement.
The Dublin-rathdown TD does not believe a border poll should be held in the near future.
But he insisted the governments in Belfast and Dublin must prepare for the possibility that one could be called after the next UK general election.
He said: “I think there is a prospect that the Secretary of State could declare a border poll is needed in the next decade.
“But even if the Secretary of State or future Secretary of State isn’t going to do that, we need to know that as soon as that is called we can react quickly to put this in process.
“That once it’s deemed necessary to have a border poll, that entire process including citizens assembly and parliamentary committees, can all be done in a two-year timeframe.” Mr Richmond said a citizens’ assembly, similar to the one held in the Republic prior to the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, could set out a clear pathway for a new Ireland in the event of poll on unity. He added: “I think the citizens’ assembly model serves us in this jurisdiction well, particularly when we had to deal with two of the most difficult issues before they went to referenda, namely repeal and marriage equality. “It think there is a proven model there to bring citizens in, representative of all society, to go through these issues before putting it to various parliamentary committees, one per jurisdiction, and then back to the committees.” He said aspects of the debate should be left until after a decision is made. He added: “Then we can decide if we need a new flag, if we need to have an anthem without words.”
We need to know we can react fast if a poll is called NEALE RICHMOND YESTERDAY