SINN FÉIN’S PROPOSED legislation aimed at pressing the government to actively prepare for unity across the island of Ireland will be debated in the Dáil today. 

Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill calls on the government to draft a Green Paper and establish a Citizens’ Assembly.

If passed, the party says it would represent a significant step forward towards planning for a united Ireland.

The legislation, if enacted, would compel the Irish government to produce a green paper on Irish unity; establish a citizens’ assembly on unification; hand oversight of those initiatives to the Dáil and Seanad; and place a responsibility on the Taoiseach to regularly make progress reports to the Oireachtas.

Mary Lou McDonald, who will be joined by First Minister Michelle O’Neill in Leinster House, to launch the proposed legislation has said her party has been making the point for a very, very long time that it is important that the government makes preparations. 

She has said that it is irresponsible for anybody in political leadership to bury their head in the sand and to imagine that they can simply wish away the facts of political, demographic and social change that is happening.

“There will be a referendum. Our objective is to secure that by the year 2030, but the referendums will happen, and the preparations need to be made now,” she said. 

Fine Gael’s Simon Harris recently announced that his party are also taking steps towards preparation, announcing that Fine Gael will develop a “blueprint for a unified island” by November.

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Harris has said no one political party “owns the conversation on Irish unity”. 

McDonald said it was a “significant move” and one she welcomed.