The fact that the government linked the implementation of the report with the enactment of conscription ruined both the credibility of the Convention and any residual interest for Home Rule. It spelt the end of Home Rule as a popular cause. This "dual policy" of conscription and devolution heralded the end of a political era, the context for a wider federalist debate was at once overhauled. Its dualism signalled the end of All-Ireland Home Rule and the end of an optional federal engagement with Ireland, which had it succeeded and if the Convention's Report had been implemented in full, would have established a novel form of federal government at the heart of Europe