Mr. Paul Gallagher:

My name is Paul Gallagher and I represent Teach na Fáilte, which supports former INLA prisoners. Many legacy issues have been talked about and the point has been made that if they are not resolved, one always will be an ex-prisoner because one will carry them with one all one's life - be they in respect of employment, travel, insurance or seeking to adopt. In response to the Deputy's question, they always will be there. Consequently, we have done a lot of work on advocacy and have been working with the Northern Ireland Civil Service in an effort to put in place various programmes and to introduce voluntary acts for taking on people who have records, as we call it, to the effect that they will not be taken into account before 1998.

However, I wish to raise the issue about trying to sustain the work of Prison to Peace and not being obliged to try to apply for funding through the various bodies in a reactionary way and not to be pigeonholed into the peace programme, because we develop far more work than that and it now is well highlighted that the work should be mainstreamed. Moreover, while the vast majority of us may have come from the North, this is not a Northern problem. This is an Irish problem and members will be aware there are growing numbers of current prisoners in Portlaoise.

There are a lot of legacy and residual issues that Prison to Peace has come through. We have good experience of going through a process involving models of dialogue, demilitarisation and disarmament and that process, as we know it today, has not ended and the skills relationships we have learned and built are required for the future. Our group, Teach na Fáilte, has done work in Portlaoise prison. We have been talking to prisoners and about issues on social justice, community development processes and about human rights. We think that collectively, Prison to Peace can go a long way if the work is sustained in dealing with issues that will arise in the future. We have seen the Good Friday Agreement, 15 years have passed and we think that sometimes it is slipping back, a lot of that stuff has not been implemented and we are present today to answer the joint committee's questions.