Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and I thank Mr. Osborne for his presentation. Two issues are predominant in the presentation and are obviously critical to getting a post-conflict society, to use the terminology. First is the question of integrated schools. The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council document states:

The Good Friday Agreement had provided the integrated-schools movement with what seemed like rock-solid endorsement, but subsequent expressions of policy emanating from the Assembly, such as the Programme for Government (2011-15), the Education Bill (2012) and TBUC (2013), all failed to mention integrated education.

There is obviously a problem in that area. There is a problem even with the attitude to integrated education within the power-sharing structure. Following the theme Senator White mentioned earlier, is there anything our committee could do that would give an impetus to action on integrated education? I accept there are all sorts of interest groups involved in the North and there are religious interest groups involved in maintaining the status quo. Having said that, there is an onus to try to move it. Educating people together is the big key.
The document states that because of economic necessity shared campuses are being developed. They are sharing facilities between the two religions for financial reasons. I suppose that is a step in the right direction. How widespread is that? What could be done to give this impetus? I agree with Deputy Smith that the two Governments need to be involved. When there is no movement they need to urge movement and create impetus. This may be an area where the two Governments should do more.
The other critical issue is youth unemployment; it is obviously critical as a potential feeding ground for dissidents. I note the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council's comment that young Protestants are now finding it harder than Catholics to break into the jobs market. It stated that in the 16 to 24 age bracket 24% of Protestants were unemployed and 17% of Catholics were unemployed. Apart from the fact that there are encouraging economic signs, are there specific actions under the EU Youth Guarantee scheme? What specific actions could be done to get at this?
Deputy Ferris mentioned the culture war. Does the Protestant community feel their culture is under threat? Is one of the bigger problems now the insecurity of the Protestant community and how can that be addressed?