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

I am pleased that the witnesses started their contribution by referring to the positive things going on and in particular the statement about how it was immensely satisfying and encouraging to live in an interface area. It is a positive message that needs to be sent out. It is part of all that is going on in the background which people throughout the island do not hear about, but it is going on every hour of every day.

The witnesses referred to disillusion. Part of the difficulty has to do with perception. A Queen's University of Belfast professor gave us results from a survey on the perceptions of Nationalists and Unionists, especially young people and their perceptions of the Good Friday Agreement and what had come out of it. On the Unionist side there was disillusionment. People took the view that things were going backwards and not improving, while on the Nationalist side people believed there had been improvements. The reality was rather different in terms of jobs, poverty and so on. The greater amount of disadvantage was still in the Nationalist rather than the Protestant areas, but the perception was rather different. Part of the difficulty is that people were talking it down in their own community and talking down the potential of change.

The witnesses referred to the Good Friday Agreement and the potential for a new beginning and the hope that came out of it. However, part of the difficulty in the process is that there are parties within the process that are in government at the moment that did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement or with change. To some extent, they are still fighting the battles from earlier years. The are still trying to stop change.

In terms of politics and politicians, how do we find a compromise between people who want things to stay the same and those who have a rosy view of a utopian past and about how great things were and who want things to go back to the way they were? We know from talking to people that things were not rosy or great in the past. There is potential in the future for things to change.

Reference was made to disadvantage and the traditional industries and so on. I could bring the witnesses around areas of this city where things are a good deal worse than Belfast in terms of disadvantage, poverty, drugs, crime and inequality. These are problems throughout the island, not only in the North. The sectarian nature of the state needs to be tackled by all of us. Collectively, we need to come together and come up with ideas. It is about these things.

There is also a need for role models. It struck me when I went into these Protestant, working class, Loyalist areas that they did not have the role models other areas had.

People talk about the lack of leadership. There is leadership, but, unfortunately, it is not a collective political leadership and it seems to come from one community and one political persuasion. I apologise for going on for so long.