Paddy Ashdown warned today his review of parading in Northern Ireland would not produce a sudden solution but a framework for long-term progress.
Lord Ashdown has been tasked by the government with chairing the Strategic Review of Parading Body (SRPB), carrying out a fundamental review of parades and the regulations surrounding them.
As he flew out of Belfast after another meeting of the body, he said things were going well, but he urged people not to raise their expectations.
Paddy Ashdown
"We see this as a process not an event," he said. "We don't anticipate that in a blinding flash we are going to get a solution to the issue of parades.
"It can't happen overnight. What we are hoping to do is produce a framework for a process that will get us from where we are to where we want to be".
Lord Ashdown and his team have now met all the political parties and intend to continue meetings during the summer - he will be back to observe the July 12th parades.
What is eventually produced would not be a global solution to parades, but a global framework in which local decisions could be made, he said. The aim, he said, was to take the politics out of parading and the SRPB had decided they would produce no surprises but keep everything transparent as they went along.
There will be an interim report around the end of the year ahead of a final report, which Lord Ashdown expects to deliver to the Government next spring.
Meanwhile, he appealed for anyone with an interest in the parading issue to contact him. Advertisements placed in newspapers last month gave a deadline of June 30th for people to register an interest, but he said because of the postal strike that had now been extended by an extra week.
Those who register an interest are asked to make written submissions and Lord Ashdown said because of the holiday period the deadline for that had been extended from July 31st to August 31st.
"I want to encourage as many people as possible to contact us; we want to hear the views of as wide a cross-section of people as possible."
He made the point that the Parades Commission was still in control of the parading issue this year. "We are not undermining them, we are looking to the long term," he said.
PA