Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and apologise for being late. I am not a member of the committee, but Senator White apprised me of the issues being discussed at this meeting. The Chairman and I, as members of the Committee on Sovereign Matters of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, have spoken with various groups in the North, and much of what is in the report would not come as any great surprise to us. I note the delegates homed in on the situation of working class Protestants, the dearth of educational opportunities available to them and the historic lack of value placed on education within that community. This situation presumably arose out of the discriminatory system that operated in the North for many years and the Protestant community's status as the dominant community, with easy access to work in the shipyards and elsewhere. Only this morning, I spoke with a former loyalist prisoner who gave the same feedback on this issue.

Education is key to advancement and an opening of the mind to alternative ways of living. In the meantime, however, sectarianism seems to be going on unabated in the North. It is a significant part of what is happening there. People have, to some extent, reversed to tribal positions and there seems to be very little political leadership in this regard. If the Executive is not having its hand held, it seems to come apart at the seams. I understand an attempt is being made - perhaps more on the loyalist side than the Nationalist side - to utilise a lack of education on the part of some people and appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to secure political support. I do not know how one deals with that.

The two Governments seem to have become detached from the process. As the delegates stated, there must be an urgent refocus on and recommitment to pulling it all together and resolving the issues. That will require a concerted effort. The problem, here and in Britain, is that both Governments are preoccupied with other issues. When elections are coming, the attention is not forthcoming which this project requires. I do not have any great solution other than to say that we might do more on cross-Border engagement and community activities. Some 32 or 33 years ago, I was involved in a twinning project with Newcastle in County Down. People got involved in that and several Nationalists told me they could not believe some of the people on the loyalist side who, through their involvement in it, had turned 180 degrees from their original position. Sometimes we underestimate the potential of that type of community activity.

What is the delegates' view on the role that can be played by schools? At a certain point while the violence was still going on, various projects were funded whereby schoolchildren from the two communities would travel together on trips to the United States and Europe. Those types of initiatives help to sow the seed for a different type of society. I might be wrong, but there does not seem to be much of that going on these days.