Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The previous Government will have communicated to the British Government at the relevant time its opposition to the ending of the 50-50 recruitment rule. Irrespective of whether it is within the parameters laid down, the decision to end the 50-50 policy is premature. The success of the Patten commission has been well documented in terms of the transformation of the police force.

Perhaps we should remove from our vocabulary, as I have already done, all references to "dissident republicans". Dissident is an honourable word that was used during the Cold War to describe people who, in conscience, went against autocracy and dictatorships.

The term "dissident" has no place in the context of describing the people who committed that evil act this week and, indeed, other evil acts in the past two or three years. That part of our vocabulary should simply disappear because it seeks to give some degree of legitimacy to what these people are doing. I know that no Member of this House would attempt to do so in any shape or form. In my view it is a cowardly, criminal gang who did this. I am fully conscious of the use of language in the context of the island and the past conflict in the North, but it is time to move on now as regards how we describe these acts of terror. The latest such act has had an appalling impact on a young life and the lives of his family members. There is no room left for using language that is in any way equivocal.

The Taoiseach correctly raised the matter of the International Fund for Ireland. It is interesting that the initiative to keep that fund going came from the Irish Government, and myself as Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time. There needs to be a genuine and substantive cross-party approach by parties in the North with the British and Irish Governments in dealing with communities that are hard to reach on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland. Insufficient attention has been paid to investment or economic and social development in those communities. The matter is nonetheless urgent because it is a fundamental potential threat to the long-term success of the peace process. There have been plenty of political dividends from that process, including a radical change in politics. However, for many people in working class communities there remain frightening issues such as unemployment, a high school drop-out rate and poor health indices. The scale of statistics reflect such problems in those communities. I would fault the lack of a comprehensive approach from the Northern Ireland Executive and others concerned. That is why the retention of IFI funding is so important.

We also need to work with the European Union which has provided such funding in the past. The Taoiseach should see that his officials and those of the Department of Foreign Affairs are in discussion with the European Commission to ensure that EU funding is retained, as well as the American funding. Whatever other additional supports the Irish and British Governments can give are also needed to ensure that meaningful progress is made in dealing with young people in hard to reach communities. We all remember some of the commentary from some young people following the atrocities at Massereene Barracks in 2009. They were hardly four or five years old at the time of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It was difficult to comprehend some of the opinions that were articulated at that time, which were a cause of concern for many of us who witnessed those attacks. That centrally important issue therefore deserves to be brought to the top of the political agenda on this island, otherwise the sustainability of the peace process will be in difficulty in the medium term.

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