Ms Avila Kilmurray:

I will respond to Deputy Smith’s questions. PEACE IV is very welcome. For obvious reasons, at the moment the emphasis is largely on young people and unemployment. Some focus should be on issues relating to ex-prisoners. PEACE funding is best used for project work. It does not have to require a big budget. Core funding would allow the continuity of groups. That goes back to the Executive. The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland has written on a number of occasions to seek meetings with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister but we have only received acknowledgements not meetings. My organisation has been acting as lead partner for the PEACE programme in terms of the prisoner work. We are getting to the stage where we are not going to do it anymore because we feel we are being used as a comfort blanket for lack of political decision making.

I have mixed views on the civic forum. It is useful potentially as a form of participative democracy. As we heard at the end of the last session, there is lack of representation from a number of areas and a civic forum might be able to address that in an affirmative manner. It would be complementary to politics because a civic forum could look at some issues that it is difficult for the elected parties to address at the moment in terms of trying to tease out some ideas following the Haass report when it comes. I will ask Mr. Deane to say something about the work of groups with young people.