Professor Brandon Hamber:

We can arm wrestle for each question. A huge number of issues have been raised and I could not do justice to all of them. I will comment on the issue of the economy and young people and then integrated education. My colleagues can deal with the other questions.

There is no doubt issues of unemployment and youth alienation about lack of prospects are universally seen as key issues that lead to not only social disengagement but, potentially, to violence; I completely concur with the point made. The other troubling issue is that we have seen a steady decrease in voting levels, with young people becoming increasingly uninterested in the political system and civic life.

The Deloitte report into segregation highlighted that segregation costs about £1.5 billion when compared to other regions. Segregation costs money and is a drag on the economy. In my short presentation thinking about attitudes, behaviours and structural issues, I do not see them as completely separate from one another. Although I completely agree about the importance of economic growth and employment, it must be done within a context because if it happens in and of itself, it will not necessarily solve the problem. If young people are still growing up in segregated environments, where the idea of the market economy is still segregated, where a person will buy from one shop but not another, or live in one area but not another, it will undermine economic progress. We must address all of these issues and although it will make a dramatic difference if there are higher levels of employment, attitudinal differences and behavioural issues will not just fade away. If we look at a region like the Basque region, which is very comparable to many northern European economies, it has transformed the economy but not the conflict. These issues are all related.

Statistics on integrated education indicate there has not been significant progress. The peace monitoring report that was published yesterday stated there had been a minor shift in the numbers of young people entering integrated education but it is still only around 7%. There has not been a major shift in school integration patterns. What obstacles are in the way? Various authorities have developed during the years, some doing very good work, with bureaucratic structures in place where people have invested in those bodies. Parents might want to choose based on historical reasons where their children might go. Furthermore, because there are so few integrated schools, there is often no real choice. It is interesting that survey data on integrated education consistently show parents favour integrated education. Recently, one survey showed 79% of parents stated they would support their school becoming integrated. There is a groundswell of interest in the area.

At policy level, however, the notion of integrated education has steadily been dropped in recent years, which is troubling. A recent report from the Integrated Education Fund tracks all the policies and notices how the word "integration", despite being a key issue in the agreement, has become less of a focus. It is difficult to understand why but it raises concerns that we might be settling for an acceptance of current arrangements. There have been positive developments like the shared education programme, which encourages cross-schooling. We cannot force children into integrated education but leadership and commitment appear to be lacking, whether that is for a vision for the next five, ten, 15 or 20 years where children are schooled together or not. That has not been forthcoming so there is no clear direction in this area, which undermines the potential of the sector.