Mr. Paul Maskey, MP:

I thank the witnesses for their presentation and appreciate the work that has been done and the contribution made to society. As Ms Gildernew says, with regard to the proposals for a review and audit of the Good Friday Agreement, that is something we should do. We called for this previously and I hope we can get agreement for this committee to look at that. I do not think we can wait another 15 years for a bill of rights and that is the problem. It is imperative on all of us to do whatever we can to ensure a bill of rights happens sooner rather than later and whatever this committee can do towards achieving that would be very useful. Perhaps researchers in Leinster House might just do some quick research looking at some of the outstanding issues that have not been delivered on.

I accept the point made that we need to meet all communities affected by not having a bill of rights. Some 25% of our population are children and in some of our constituencies some 43% of children suffer from poverty. This is a massive issue and I believe the committee should also look at taking some of the child and poverty issues on board. As I said earlier, following on what Patricia McKeown said regarding poverty and other issues in our constituencies, the majority of people seriously affected by not having a bill of rights are those from a disadvantaged social and economic background community.

Mr. Durkan has talked about some of the issues in the context of civil servants who advise something cannot be done because it will be too difficult, but this is something we must all challenge. The reason our political parties are in government is to challenge these civil servants to ensure that the people affected are supported the most. We must continue to do this. It is not good enough that my constituency or Mr. Durkan's constituency have some of the highest unemployment rates on this island. We must challenge those who have responsibility with regard to a bill of rights to deliver on that front. I hope this committee takes up some of the recommendations put forward today and that we can implement them. Hopefully, that will draw us closer to getting the bill of rights we all deserve.