Paul Bradford (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is sometimes seen as a cliché to say a meeting acted as a wake-up call, but it is applicable to what we have heard today. Ms Gordon referred to accusations that the Governments were stepping off the stage too soon. That is the beginning, middle and end of the problem. We are all responsible in this regard. I listened with interest to Deputy Martin Ferris's remarks. I was in the Oireachtas at the time of the ceasefire in the early 1990s and during the exciting period between 1994 and 1998. We have moved a long way from that era, but, sadly, we have also taken our eye of the ball. There were feelings of optimism and hope during those years which have not been regenerated in the past decade. People have bought into the concept of no going back. We all know that there will be no going back to the awful violence of the late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s and are very happy with this, but we could well go back to a phase which might see monthly bombings and occasional murders, rather than daily bombings or weekly murders. That would also be entirely unacceptable.

We must address a myriad of difficulties. I am concerned that a new marginalised community is evolving. Until the mid-1990s in what I might call the old Northern Ireland, marginalised communities had a degree of interest in politics and engaging. One side of the community supported Sinn Féin, while the other supported the DUP. For a number of reasons, these parties have become politically dominant. The Sinn Féin-DUP axis was traditionally on the margins, but it is now a new establishment.

Now there are people who are excluded from that establishment. We are talking about people who, let us be honest, were previously almost comrades in arms. A total of 90% of those people have moved on to a better place economically, socially and politically but 10% are now in the new margin. This is something we really need to be concerned about. These people are the new marginalised who see their former colleagues and allies in a much better place. One sees resentment, jealousy and all those human attributes. We must try to address the concerns of those people. It goes back to investment and jobs. I do not know whether it was Ms Irwin or Ms Gordon who said that she did not know any young people who do not want to work. This is as applicable to the Republic of Ireland as it is to Northern Ireland and is the reason the question of investment must be looked at again. It is not a problem of the past two, three or four years but of the past decade.

There has been complacency and sometimes an unwillingness to recognise how far we have travelled. On at least six or seven occasions over the past 12 months in the Seanad, I asked that we would observe the momentous events of 1994 and that we would have statements or a debate but it just did not happen. I looked at the Dáil debates in the summer and early autumn and wondered where the debates reflecting the 20th anniversary of the ceasefire were. As far I know, they did not happen either. We are getting very excited, perhaps rightly so, about commemorations from a different period and what sort of commemoration, debate and approach we should take but I would certainly like us to reflect much more deeply on why and how 1994 happened, why and now 1998 happened and how we can progress things. I would be more concerned about recent history and the future than what happened tragically 100 hundreds years ago. We need much stronger political engagement to deal with what I see as the new marginalised because while those new marginalised communities and people are there, we have significant difficulties.

We could speak all day about integrated education. Perhaps I will be politically correct in respect of this. In a perfect world, we would be driving it forward and it would be happening. In respect of the communities in Northern Ireland, we must respect that progress can sometimes drip very slowly. If one pulls the entire rug from under the feet of people who are clinging on in some way to old traditions and an older view of the world, fear and doubt could set in to a dangerous degree. I would love to see children being educated in a very integrated fashion but I do not believe there is an instant overnight forced solution. If we cannot at least integrate in the classrooms, we should look very carefully at the school curriculum and the way teachers are being allocated and try to ensure that there is a balance coming from a teaching perspective and not just from the students in the classroom. There is a candidate for election to the Seanad who could tell a story about difficulties in that regard. We can sometimes look a bit too simplistically at the debate about integrated education in Northern Ireland. We must respect tradition and traditions will change very slowly. There are lots of ways to assist, support, encourage and bring about integration and it does not always require a big stick.

I welcome the presentations. It is a wake-up call and a strong call on our governments, Ministers and all of us politically to acknowledge where we have come from but to realise that we cannot stand still. There must be significant re-engagement in the process to keep it moving forward because if it does not move forward, it will go back. It is not going back to the bad old days but it can still go back to bad places and we must be very vigilant in that regard. As a non-member, I thank the Chairman for giving me the opportunity to make those comments.