Mr. Rab McCallum:

There is such an interconnectivity between all the issues we are talking about. Poverty and deprivation and all the other things we experience in conflict and the remnants of conflict are within those communities that are most impacted by discrimination and poverty. One of the reasons I came here today was that I took the galvanising the peace conversation into Ardoyne and met some of the groups who were involved in all aspects of cross-community work. They all work with the cross-community partner whether that is advising on housing, youth work or other aspects of community development work. We began the conversation on how we could get back to galvanising the peace. The conversation suddenly turned into how can we galvanise our community. There is almost an apathy within communities and a lack of cohesion because of the impact of cuts and austerity. People turn around and think of peace building in the absence of violence. It was mentioned earlier that we are in a post-conflict situation. We are in a post-violent conflict situation and we are still in this confrontation over ethnicity and whatever which still ravages our communities. The reality is that in the absence of violence people do not see peace or the reconciliation aspect as being a priority for them. It is almost a luxury or an abstract concept for those people who are not disadvantaged by poverty. They are thinking of the day to day life that they lead, how to get through the next day and how cuts will impact of them. All those issues comes into play as to whether they participate in sport and go to school. Quite often, highly ambitious behaviour impacts on our communities.

If I took the committee to Ardoyne tomorrow morning, at 11.15 a.m. it would see a group of about 14 or 15 young people walking around the street who are not in school. They are out of school. They are a needs group. I guarantee that of those 14 or 15 young people, ten will be involved in all sorts of anti-social behaviour at night which, quite often, transfers on to interface violence. I believe there is a huge connectivity in terms of those areas. That can be in the Shankill Road, the New Lodge Road, Tiger's Bay or Ardoyne where the same issues are taking place. One of the difficulties I encountered somewhere along the line was when we stood in communities, sometimes people thought it was a bad thing, 80% of the community may have voted for Sinn Féin and may have voted for the DUP but 80% of those people connect themselves to a political process or to democracy. Now that a declining number of people are engaging in the political process, the ability of people who are anti-peace agreements means dissatisfaction grows. It is imperative for us to go in and deal with those issues. For most of the communities in which I am involved there has been no peace dividend. We have the term "transformation through regeneration" but we see no real regeneration. There is talk of anti-poverty strategies. Where are they? People have been left floundering and feeling that the war is not actually with their Protestant neighbours or any longer with the British state, it is with those people who are going to increase their anxiety with the cuts they intend to impose on them. There is a huge anxiety within those communities. They are turned away from the issue of reconciliation by concerns about how to get by next week. That makes the work we are all involved in extremely difficult.