Ms Orlaith Fitzmaurice:

I wish to address some of the specific points raised by Deputies and Senators, if I may. Domestic violence is obviously a universal issue, but there is a particular aspect to domestic violence in Northern Ireland as a post-conflict society.

We have been able to fund projects, such as the cross-Border project with the Fermanagh Women's Aid Group, exploring domestic violence as a legacy of paramilitarism.

A number of members mentioned LGBT rights and mental health, issues of which we are very aware from the context of the North of Ireland and that we support more broadly through other reconciliation fund programmes. We do not count them in our UNSCR 1325 funding, but we would be happy to follow up with individual members if they would like to explore any of those areas.

I thank the Chairman for his proposal with regard to engagement on UNSCR 1325 through the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. We are very much aware that the ideal would be to have a national action plan for Northern Ireland, but we are conscious that we do not want the best to be the enemy of the good. We work by applying the spirit and principles and taking a pragmatic approach. An initiative does not have to be labelled UNSCR 1325 for us to support it.

Our next funding round for reconciliation work more generally is in the autumn. As Ms McManus has mentioned, the applications that we get from women's groups for funding under UNSCR 1325 tend to be of very high quality and we tend to say yes to a great many of them. We would certainly welcome more. There is certainly more scope for us to support them as there is a great deal of work that still needs to be done.

I will now address the question of what happens when the funding period finishes for groups. One of the key criteria against which we assess applications is their long-term sustainability and impact. Projects with a built-in long-term impact are more likely to be supported by us. Of course, groups can always reapply as well.