Ms Sandra Peake:

Deputy Crowe is no longer here but I want to pick up on what said. It is about the fact that labelling needs to be removed. I urge members to go to the "Silent Testimony" exhibition in the Ulster Museum when they are in Belfast. This is 18 portraits of people. Their eyes show how we must make this work. The labels have been removed so one does not know who they are and what background they come from, which is what it should be about. In respect of Mr. Mickey Brady, MP, we have made representation to Stormont and the special advisers and have made recommendations to the Commission for Victims and Survivors in respect of welfare. We have produced extensive evidence of the impact we believe it will have on victims and survivors. We see the impact of welfare daily in our work. Last year, our welfare advisers - we have the equivalent of two and a half posts for welfare - brought about £1.3 million to people who had lost benefits or were claiming them for the first time so we see the impact daily. We want to see protection for victims and survivors within that. We think that is very important. If the message has not got through in respect of the representations we have made, we are keen to hear why this is the case because our victims' commissioner and the people who are tasked should be fighting hard on these issues.

In response to Deputy O'Reilly, the reason for the negativity around the Stormont House Agreement is because we have seen a failure to deliver successive initiatives. People have put their heart and soul in pushing them. They see the Stormont House Agreement and the recommendations for victims and survivors tied up in a wider debate about welfare and they wonder what is going to happen. It is about preparing them for the fact that they may not get what they want. People are realistic in saying we need this.

My final point concerns education. Our youth services in the North have been cut drastically. WAVE has lost youth funding. We used to have over 300 young people in service provision. They are no longer there and young people must now be seen through our support structures which are not adequate. The removal and demise of youth funding and the ending of PEACE funding without any mechanism in its place to continue work with young people in particular have been damning indictments of our society.