Mr. Brian Gormally:

The failure to deal with legacy issues certainly is a threat to the peace process. Consider, for example, a young man living in a deprived area of the North - we will say he is from a republican background - who is being told that we have had a peace process and everything is different now and that he is living in a society that is rights-based and fair to all. However, that young fellow can see for himself what is happening in regard to legacy issues and that the basic responsibilities of the state in the context of dealing with murders and maimings are not being carried out. There may be an argument that this is difficult stuff and, of course, that is true at one level. However, what we must look at here is Deputy Brenda Smith's question about resources and what is being done in that regard. The Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland has put forward a plan to deal with all legacy inquests within five years, which he will do as long as he is given the money. As I said earlier, that proposal was blocked by the First Minister, Arlene Foster, but what is the big deal about the British Government making that money available? It is not difficult politically to support the Lord Chief Justice - the chief judge in the jurisdiction - to do his job. It is not a political issue that requires detailed consensus among and back-up from the various institutions. At that kind of level, we can see that the will is lacking to do a deal. Going back to our young man, where is the fair society he was promised? The danger is that people like him will be told by demagogues and ideologues that nothing has changed, the Brits are just the same as they ever were and it is time to take up the gun again. That is the reality of what people are being told.

Brexit is another example of the same type of problem. The Deputy might not want me to go on too long about Brexit but its impact is such that the whole delicate constitutional arrangement - the east-west and North-South structures that were put together with great ingenuity in 1998 - have just been knocked over by the proposal to withdraw from the European Union. It may be a question of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again if Brexit goes ahead, but the damage to the peace process will have been done. What people are being told, namely, that they have a future on this island, is undermined by the actions of a Government that does not really seem to care about this stuff.