Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is genuinely hard to believe that last month was the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. After 30 years of violence and more than 3,700 deaths across the island, we all recognise the peace of the day many people thought would never come.

For me, a fundamental core value of the Agreement was the promotion of integrated education, but today only 7% of the children in Northern Ireland's schools are educated in integrated schools. The sad fact of life today is that some of our young adults do not meet people from the other side of their communities until they go to university. Based on the school population staying the same, it will take another 499 years for the divided education system to be fully and organically integrated. This prolongs the sectarian politics of the main Unionist and Nationalist political parties. When it comes to the increase in integrated schools the figures are no better. Today, there are 511 controlled schools and 519 schools under Catholic management, compared with only 62 integrated schools. Of almost 1,100 nursery, primary and post-primary schools, only 6% are integrated. Research and, unfortunately, practice have shown that a sectarian education system maintains divisions and fosters mutual ignorance, while pupils educated in integrated sectors are far more likely to adopt a positive position on key social issues such as politics, religion and identity, all of which extend into their later adult lives.

Since the Good Friday Agreement, provisional figures indicate that approximately 130 people have died for reasons of division - an average of nine per year, compared to the average of 71 every year for 30 years before the Agreement. Even today, that figure is too large. We must recognise that many people have worked long and hard to achieve peace and it is up to us to ensure we continue to fight equally hard to maintain it.

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