Mr. Derek Poole:

On the issue of the community sector, the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister set up a committee recently to look at the latest Government document on a holistic vision and strategy for the peace process, known as TBUC - Together Building an United Community.

We welcomed this document, which has a great many affirmations. This was the first time the community sector has heard from Government. One of the concepts is the protection of the peace and reconciliation infrastructure through financial support, funding and so on. The irony is that this is a genuine and sincere recognition that the community structure bridges to a large degree many of the issues we are talking about, disaffected communities, disadvantaged, marginalised people who are often not listened to or heard on issues of education. The community sector provides the means of articulation and a conduit for that voice to a large degree. Although there is a commitment to this in that committee's recommendations, the reality is that the peace and reconciliation infrastructure is dissipating as we speak. The infrastructure that has been built up over the past 40 years, not just in the past ten or 20 years, but the expertise, the organisations, the connectivity with communities, the awareness of the issues and the nuances that are necessary to move disaffected communities into a more confident and articulate position themselves is ceasing to exist. Everybody around this table knows of organisations that are no longer there. Key individuals who played an absolutely vital role in the housing estate or the local community are no longer there. If that infrastructure goes, it seem to us not just unfortunate, but the removal of a vital role in the community sector of civic society.

It is a vital and important role that acts as an informed and capable bridge between Government and the community.