Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses.

The discussion started off on the case of rickets in west Belfast. We all agree poverty is not something which happens only in the North of Ireland but that it happens all over Ireland. We know 100,000 children go to bed hungry at night and that deprivation and discrimination happen on the island of Ireland. Most people would not understand why some would be opposed to human rights. That is a big conundrum most people would be in.

The parties agreed to the right to free political thought; the right to freedom of expression and religion; the right to pursue democratic national and political aspirations; the right to choose one's place of residence; the right to equal opportunity in all social and economic activity, regardless of class, creed, disability, gender or ethnicity; the right to freedom from sectarian harassment; and the right of women to full and equal political participation. Who in their right mind would be opposed to that?

Rather than looking forward to that inclusive Ireland we all thought would come out of the Good Friday Agreement, are some people are looking back to the good old days? Is that what it is about? The difficulties the British Government has were mentioned and that the Conservatives have a view on a human rights. Do we really need all that type of malarkey? The two Governments have also signed up to this. It is almost as if they have adopted a passive role in regard to it. They are not persuaders for change. They say they must get agreement from the parties and that there is no point in them doing anything in this regard. If we were to wait for agreement from the parties, would anything happen in regard to many of the big issues we face? When do these people believe will be a good time? Do we want to wait another 15 years, put it on the backburner, say it is not really important and say the Assembly is still meeting and that there are problems in the South as well?

We had a discussion earlier about legislation relating to ex-prisoners. That is a big issue in regard to the Good Friday Agreement and getting those people on board. We all agree many of the people sent to jail in the North would not have been there but for the conflict. There was agreement at the time that we would try to move things on and that people would not be discriminated against because of their background and yet 15 years later, we are introducing legislation which will discriminate against people because of their background. How important is that? That would not happen if this was in place.

Much of this is about people looking back rather than forward. That is one of the biggest difficulties we have in trying to push this forward. It is also about some people being opposed to it and others taking a passive role. Responsibility now lies with the two Governments. They must pull it together. Do the witnesses agree with that?