Why is a referendum being held on the Belfast Agreement?
The negotiators of the agreement reached on April 10th agreed to put it to the people of Ireland, North and South, in a poll on the same day to give it greater democratic authority.
Will people on the whole island be voting on the same thing?
Yes. They will be voting to ratify the same agreement in the first all-Ireland poll since 1918. But the question will be posed in different ways, North and South.
What will be on the ballot paper in Northern Ireland?
Northern voters will be asked one question: Do you support the Agreement reached in the multi-party talks on Northern Ireland and set out in Command Paper 3883? (That's the technical parliamentary term for the Belfast Agreement.)
The British government will later enact legislation to implement the provisions of the agreement.
What question will be asked in the Republic?
Voters in the Republic will be asked one question: British-Irish Agreement: Do you approve of the proposal to amend the Constitution contained in the undermentioned Bill? Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1998.
What's in this Bill?
Six constitutional amendments required to give effect to the Belfast Agreement in the Republic.
Why six amendments?
Though you think you are changing only Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, dealing with the Republic's territorial claim to the North, the amendments are technically complex. The six changes will be placed, initially, as new Sections 7 and 8 of Article 29 of the Constitution, which deals with the State's international relations.
Section 7 (i) will permit the State to be bound by the British-Irish Agreement reached at Belfast on the 10th day of April.
Section 7 (ii) will allow the institutions established under the agreement, particularly the North-South ministerial council and implementation bodies, to function.
Section 7 (iii) provides the Government with the power to make a declaration that the agreement has come into effect. The changes in Articles 2 and 3 and the addition of a new Section 8 to Article 29 can then be made. The text of the new wordings for Articles 2 and 3 will be set out here.
Section 7 (iv) is the legal mechanism provided to move the new Articles 2 and 3 from their transitory, or temporary, position in Article 29 to replace the current Articles 2 and 3 if the Government declares that the agreement has come into force.
Section 7 (v) provides that, if the Agreement does not enter into force, the amendments of Articles 2 and 3 will cease to have effect after 12 months. The Government can extend this 12 months by law if it so desires.
Section 8 of Article 29 will permit the State to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction in accordance with the generally recognised principles of international law.
Could you simplify all that?
Yes. The Government is asking us to replace the old Articles 2 and 3 with newly-worded Articles 2 and 3. It is making these amendments conditional, however. The new Articles will be inserted in the Constitution only if the Government is satisfied, a year or more from Good Friday, that the agreement, the North-South ministerial council and the implementation bodies are up and running.
What are the main provisions of the new Articles 2 and 3?
The new Article 2 will confer the entitlement and birthright on every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation and, under law, a citizen of Ireland. The new Article 3 contains the aspiration of the Irish nation to unite all its people, "recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions". The Irish nation, in other words, will be defined by its people, not its territory.
Why aren't all the amendments being put to the people as six separate questions instead of one catch-all question on the ballot paper?
The Government decided, quite deliberately, to put all the constitutional changes required to endorse the Belfast Agreement in a single question to voters. It did not want to give voters the option of "cherry-picking" the proposed changes. If voters wanted to take the Belfast Agreement, for example, but hold on to the old Articles 2 and 3, the Republic would not be ratifying the Belfast Agreement.
What if we change Articles 2 and 3 tomorrow but not enough pro-agreement unionists are elected to the assembly next month to be able to set up the all-island dimension of the North-South ministerial council?
There's no need, at this stage, to worry. The Government has guaranteed against that and you are voting to copper-fasten that guarantee. The Government is to be allowed 12 months from April 10th to make a declaration that the agreement has come into effect. Furthermore, the Government may ask the Dail to extend that period by law, or the changes to Articles 2 and 3 will not be made.
What if the assembly turns out to be like the old Stormont?
Every effort has been made, on paper, to ensure that it won't. The agreement contains specific clauses requiring that key decisions in the executive and the assembly are taken on a cross-community basis. Your fears should be further assuaged by the fact that Sinn Fein, which has always refused to sit in a Northern assembly, has changed its party constitution to allow its elected members to take part in this one.
Which politicians are voting for the Belfast Agreement in the Republic?
All 166 members of the Dail, from parties as different as Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and the Greens.
And in the North?
It is receiving support from the broadest range of political opinion accorded to any political initiative there: from the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and the Alliance Party to Sinn Fein, the Ulster Democratic Party and the Progressive Unionist Party.
Who are voting against it?
The Democratic Unionist Party, sections of the UUP, the UK Unionist Party, the Continuity IRA, the 32-County Sovereignty Committee, some members and supporters of Sinn Fein, Republican Sinn Fein, and people like Robert Ballagh and Eamonn McCann.
Why is there such support, North and South, for the agreement?
Because the overwhelming majority of democrats on the island see the Belfast Agreement as the best chance for peace in Northern Ireland in a lifetime.