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Monday 16 March

The Convention's task is to find out what the Welsh public know about devolution now and what they would like to see in the future, ahead of any referendum on more powers for the National Assembly.

Local businessman Peter Gatward was one of the 60-strong audience that filled the Drwm Theatre at the National Library of Wales when the Convention visited Aberystwyth for a Question Time style event earlier this month.

"I've come because we've boarded a devolution train and we're now looking at the next station," he tells Eye on Wales.

"We could go around a side turning if we're not looking straight away at the destination we want to get to. That's what I want to look at."

The roots of the All Wales Convention lie in the coalition agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru following the Assembly election of 2007.

That committed both parties to "proceed to a successful outcome of a referendum for full law-making powers as soon as practicable."

The Convention was set up to conduct a wider public debate on the politicians' plans. The man asked to oversee the process was the former diplomat, Sir Emyr Jones Parry.

"Our brief is very simple. If extra powers are going to come to Cardiff, should they come, as now, incrementally or should they come in one go?

"That's the exam question. It raises in any audience anywhere in Wales a number of other issues. Some have to do with the implementation of devolution, views on the Assembly, a range of things."

"But we are keeping to our brief which is to try and stimulate debate and try and identify what the people of Wales want and think and the arguments for the different positions."

It's a process that has its critics. True Wales is a cross-party body opposed to full law-making powers for the Assembly.

It sees the All Wales Convention as a "waste of taxpayers' money" and a "propagandist 'Yes' campaign".

Henri Lloyd Davies is a former chairman of the Conservative Party in Wales and a recent recruit. He says, "We've taken the first step and I think that is enough."

"We've got this option now, let's test the legislative powers that the current Assembly has for many more years before we consider another step forward.

"If we should move on to a referendum I think we'd find public opinion swinging our way. Once the case is put across more effectively there would be a great change of opinion and people would move against legislative powers."

In the opposite corner stands Tomorrow's Wales, which supports the idea of full law-making powers for the Assembly.

The former Plaid Cymru MP and AM Cynog Dafis is a member of its executive committee.

"What we need to concentrate on is how we govern Wales best," he says.

"What powers we need to be able to deliver the goods and to do that efficiently and quickly and to encourage maximum participation by people."

"We need a system of legislation that people can understand. Well it's the Dickens of a job to understand the process that we are now caught up in."

The All Wales Convention is on the road for a while yet. Abertillery, Mold and Newtown are just three of its destinations in the weeks ahead.

Its final report is expected in November.