Mr. Peter Sheridan:

I will comment on some of the done and dusted issues raided by Mr. Francie Molloy. I think there is such a sense and it tends to make politicians complacent about where we are and to place the focus on the economy, whether in Ireland or in the United Kingdom. There is the danger of not dealing with issues which are a bigger long-term threat to the economy on this island than the current recession. I think we will get out of the current recession, be it in the next five to ten years, but if we do not deal with the signature weaknesses that we have and the outstanding issues of the Good Friday Agreement, I think they will become a greater long-term threat to the Agreement. There is a sense in the North of working together but managing apart. I think we need to deal with that issue. There are social tensions around the issue of the flags and the parades. As I work in loyalist working class communities, there is no doubt that among ordinary people there is a fear of loss or dilution of their ethos and symbols. Some of this might be as a result of how they understood what they got or did not get in the Good Friday Agreement. There is a genuine fear of losing their ethos. There are malign forces also at work who are able to get people on to the street but I do not think we should ignore the fears in working class loyalist communities. The peace dividend of jobs, that Deputy Joe O'Reilly raised, did not happen and therefore young people who are growing up, and were not here 15 years ago, have a sense of hopelessness. They have only the half dozen streets around them and have no sense they will get out of that environment which I think causes some of that fear of losing, which is part of the feeling in their communities. I agree with the point made by Mr. Francie Molloy, MP that the hostility and bitterness needs to move to recognition that consistently championing our own sides and their causes is not what a shared society is about. A shared society is not about a homogeneous society but it is trying to create a stable place in which all who live there, regardless of cultural or religious backgrounds and people see the place as home. For the new generation coming through, to which Deputy Brendan Smith referred, the old certainties of the past around nationalism, unionism, Catholicism, Protestantism are no longer there and I think we need to consider what impact that will have on us in the years to come.

I think we must consider whether peace is simply an absence of violence and the end of conflict or about people having enough resources to live dignified lives, which is related to the issue of jobs and education. If we are clear that peace is not just about an absence of violence but is about creating the circumstances in which people have the resources to live dignified lives, I think the direction of travel changes and the decisions we make in the coming years also change. Between the peace making phase of the Good Friday Agreement and peace building phase, there was a view in governments that once the Northern Ireland Executive was up and running, it should have the responsibility to get on with business. I think most of us would agree that the right thing to do was to give the Northern Ireland Executive that responsibility, but in hindsight some of the most difficult issues are the ones they continue to grapple with. The Northern Ireland Executive had been asked to build a new government, to look at issues such as water rates and the ordinary business of government and in addition to deal with sectarianism, segregated housing and education. The Six Counties are the equivalent size of Manchester with a community of 1.5 million to 1.7 million people. We would not hand some of the major issues to Croydon County Council outside London to deal with them on their own. Part of the refocusing at the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is on the engagement by the British, Irish and the US Governments in supporting the Northern Ireland Executive to deal with the residue of the difficult outstanding issues arising from the conflict. If I would be allowed to rewrite the Agreement, I would ask the Northern Ireland Executive to focus on the future and build a new future and we, as the government, will continue to deal with the outstanding difficult issues the peace walls, residential and educational segregation issues. What is required is that support from the British, Irish and the US Governments to re-engage with the Northern Ireland Executive to help it along and not simply be critical of it. We are dealing with the trauma of the past 30 years and we should not be surprised that people who were former enemies are sitting down and trying to work things out. We could always say they could do more, and most of us got such a comment in the school reports. Yes of course the Northern Ireland Executive could do more but it needs the help and support from the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom.