Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to come back to the integrated education programme. Ms Jones said the funding cuts are beginning to affect any possibility of the programmes moving forward. People in working class areas, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity for a full education because of their socioeconomic background, with many people living in abject poverty and so on. A conflict resolution process is first about truth and reconciliation, but it is also about understanding and having an element of forgiveness and recognising people's identity. Central to much of this is political leadership and religious leadership. I have a jaundiced view of the role played by religious institutions in dividing people, and they continue to maintain that division for their own selfish reasons. An element of dealing with that is through an educational process, whether it is shared or integrated education. If children are taught narrow-minded nationalism or sectarianism in the home, that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, but if they are given a proper opportunity to see people as they are, not as what they are led to believe they are-----