Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I was struck by a couple of comments made by Mr. Kenny Donaldson and Mr. Ian Bothwell in respect of issues around the Border. I am from Monaghan. I will ask a question rather than make a statement. What more can be done in terms of dialogue between people in south Fermanagh, Monaghan, south Armagh and Tyrone to give the general community a better sense of what happened to those communities? Many of the younger generation in our area would not be aware of exactly what went on and would not have an empathy with or understanding of what went on. What concrete steps could be taken to have public sessions in Monaghan and in other Border areas to explain what happened to give them a better understanding in order that people would have a greater empathy with each other and we could get over the problems of the past and move forward together. In our own area, in terms of cross-community relationships, the position has improved immensely and things are quite good at the moment. At a cross-Border level what concrete steps can we take to improve the situation and make things better in the future? I was struck by what Mr. Kenny Donaldson said in regard to the lack of support for victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, Belturbet bombings and various bombings in the South in terms of accessing services and State support to deal with what happened to them.