Mr. Martin McMullan:

I would like to pick up on a point made by Ms Gildernew. I compliment previous speakers on what they have said. I am delighted Ms Gildernew mentioned the LGBT work that is being done. As part of the current policy in Northern Ireland with regard to education and youth work priorities, it has been suggested that youth work should be confined to those aged 21 and under. As Ms Gildernew said, it sometimes takes young people five years to come out. That gives us another reason to argue in favour of being allowed to continue to work with young people until the age of 25, at least. Given that approximately 60% of LGBT young people do not have a single adult they can talk to, it is not surprising that young gay men are five times more likely to attempt suicide, or that 30% of young people in the LGBT community engage in self-harm. We should acknowledge that. Youth Action Northern Ireland and other organisations like the Rainbow Project are running programmes in the North to deal with these issues. Those who work with LGBT young people help to address issues such as diversity. An expert approach is not required. We need to treat the person like a human being. It is a question of having a humanitarian point of view. We do not need experts who send them to various projects. Those involved in education and youth work often feel they do not have the skills to work with LGBT young people. There is nothing different about them. They have exactly the same needs as other young people, but they feel that extra levels of pressure and suppression are imposed on them.

Deputy Feighan expressed some interest in the work we are doing in the Balkans. Care International is our partner, and that of Youth Work Ireland, in the Balkans. It is a well-recognised organisation that works in areas of conflict. It tries to work at many levels. Approximately six years ago, we embarked on conversations with Care International about the Balkans. At a time when countries like Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia were emerging from conflict, we felt we could do something in the Irish context. I refer to Northern Ireland in particular. It is a question of two areas that are emerging from conflict. We looked at gender-based work and gender-based violence because we felt we had that in common. Much of the work we have done with Mr. McLoughlin in the South has involved looking at the role of young men in violence. We have reflected on the invisibility of women and young women throughout the conflict, when young men were more visible on the streets as defenders of communities and protectors of identity.

When we became aware that a similar concept was being developed in the Balkans, we organised study visits through the British Council and the Youth in Europe programme. We received support from Irish Aid at a later stage. That enabled us to embark on study visits. We went to the Balkans to have conversations and dialogues with practitioners on the ground there. We also discussed policy. The people in question came here subsequently. That has developed into ongoing annual exchanges, whereby young people from Dundalk, Dublin, east Belfast and south Armagh go to the Balkans to meet other young men and compare their experiences of conflict and everyday violence. They have travelled to places like Sarajevo, Vukovar, Belgrade and Zagreb. That has resulted in conferences and seminars on the island of Ireland and in the Balkans. The President of Croatia came to our Belfast offices, which was really exciting. He launched the initiative and gave the programme his endorsement. Our next step is to look at it from a female point of view. We want to work with young women on issues like gender-based violence.