Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have a question or two for Ms Kilmurray in particular. The PEACE IV programme will soon come on-stream. The European Parliament has finalised its budget for the coming years in recent days. Reference was made to the lack of continuity for schemes depending on such programmes. Such funding will be critically important given the challenges facing governments in terms of funding. When we know the parameters of the new PEACE IV programme we should be in a position to support any programmes Ms Kilmurray puts forward for financial support. She indicated that from the mid-1990s the European Union has been supportive of different peace building projects. I recall very well meeting with officials from the European Commission at the time when Albert Reynolds was Taoiseach. There was a particular drive at that time to ensure that the European Union supported the peace process. Could Ms Kilmurray elaborate on the work of various groups with young people in terms of highlighting to them that there is no glamour attached to going back to violence? Such information would give an indication of the value of the work.

Ms Kilmurray mentioned in her publication that the work of the civic forum could be valuable from the point of view of giving another worthwhile forum to various groups to deal with issues outside the mainstream dealt with by parliamentary assemblies. The most recent questions I asked in the Dáil about the establishment of a civic forum appeared to suggest that the process was not advancing. Perhaps that would change if Ambassador Haass and Meghan O’Sullivan produce a report to that effect. I do not know how the forum worked when it was in existence. Did Ms Kilmurray engage meaningfully with the civic forum when it was in place? It should offer good potential to various groups. We spoke earlier about loyalist groups that might not be well represented in political fora, at local authority, Assembly or parliamentary level. Deputy Ferris contributed on the point. Could Ms Kilmurray elaborate on her views in terms of the potential of the civic forum? We could provide support in terms of lobbying the Government and the British Government.