Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This week marks the 15th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a fact which I am sure everyone will agree is reflected in national and international press coverage. Recently I attended an event for academia and politicians at the British Academy in London organised by Lord Paul Bew, an architect of the Good Friday Agreement, which acknowledged its 15th anniversary and looked to the future of the peace process. Yesterday I participated in an event at the US embassy in Dublin attended by representatives of many embassies to mark the 15th anniversary of the Agreement. Internationally, there is still a strong positive focus on what has happened and developments in Northern Ireland. The overwhelming observation was that while we still had the ongoing challenges presented by legacy issues, community relations and sectarianism, added to the wake-up call of the protests in recent months, we should look at the positives and the progress made in the past 15 years. I look forward to continuing my working relationship with the committee and its members while we face the technical challenges presented by outstanding issues such as the North-South Consultative Forum and the review of the North-South bodies.

I would like our guests today to know that the committee has been focused on working at grassroots level. We have engaged with Nationalist and loyalist communities, primarily in Belfast, and hope to continue this work. We intend to visit Belfast on 3 and 4 May to engage with these communities.

If issues on the ground need to be addressed, we intend to be there with people and communities. Our role is limited, but the overwhelming feedback has been to the effect that those involved want people to listen, to be willing to help and to be shoulder to shoulder with them. We intend to continue with that work. With that in mind, I am delighted to have such a range of speakers in attendance. We look forward to their observations on the work in which they are involved. They probably have not brought a crystal ball with them, but predicting Northern Ireland's future journey would be difficult.

In attendance is Professor Brandon Hamber, director of the International Conflict Research Institute, INCORE, an associate site of the United Nations that is based out of the University of Ulster. He is also a Mellon distinguished visiting scholar in the school of human and community development and the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. I welcome Professor Hamber.

We are also joined by Dr. Neil Jarman, director of the Institute for Conflict Research, ICR, who has carried out research on such issues as street violence, disputes over parades, the management of public order, police reform, racist and homophobic violence and human rights in a number of countries, including Northern Ireland, South Africa, the USA, Israel, Palestine, Kosovo and Nepal. He was an adviser to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during the disputes over Orange Order parades in the 1990s and a specialist adviser to the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee during its 2004-05 inquiry into hate crimes. He works with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, as a member of an international panel tasked with drafting guidelines relating to law and practice on freedom of assembly.

We are also joined by Mr. Peter Sheridan, OBE. He officially took on the role of chief executive officer of Co-operation Ireland on 1 January 2009. As he has presented to the committee previously, I welcome him back. His role is to lead the organisation strategically as it moves into the next phase of its development. He was a police officer for 30 years, starting as a cadet officer in 1978. He did much of his service in the north west of Northern Ireland in uniformed policing. Perhaps we bumped into each other during those years when I went across the Border to Strabane to do a bit of shopping and went through customs on the way back. He rose through the ranks from constable to assistant chief constable with responsibility for the rural region.

If the committee agrees, I will ask our three guests to present in a group format, after which I will open the floor to members' questions and observations.