Mr. Michael Culbert:

Deputy O'Sullivan mentioned EPIC. We work very closely with EPIC in a couple of regards. One relates to issues that could, in broad terms, come under reconciliation and conflict transformation. We deal with them and have sessions together. We talk on issues. The most recent one, funnily enough, was on the Irish language. That was both with EPIC and an organisation that Mr. Jackie McDonald - whom the committee may have heard of - was representing. I do not know the name of the group he was representing. There was a broad grouping from the former UDA prisoners in Belfast and the meeting was on the issue of the Irish language. I will speak about it quickly. They were all saying they did not mind the Irish language. The Irish language was okay. However, they did not like the Sinn Féin one. Go figure. That was what we were told. We do work with them on issues which are current and problematic for both communities.

We also work on the joint tourism project in Belfast. It ties in with our work with universities, schools and youth groups. We go into the youth groups, mostly along with former British soldiers, to give three different perspectives on what the context of the conflict was, what was happening from our individual perspectives and our hopes for the future. It is important for our next generation to know what happened and why. That is the situation between us and EPIC. Under the peace funds, which Mr. Mulgrew outlined, that was always an integral part of our work. However, at the same time, the majority of our work was working with our own individual communities to get them to a level where they were prepared to interact with these groups such as the former British military and former loyalists groups etc.

We have limited interaction with people who are not supportive of the peace process or who belong to organisations that are anti the peace process. We know them and would have been in prison with some of them. I do not know if the committee has heard of a man called Mr. Chris McCabe. He was a former head of the prison service in the North of Ireland. He and I interact quite a lot with a representative group of one of those organisations. There are quite a few of them. There is a pretty biggish one based in west Belfast. Mr. McCabe and I interact on issues, particularly those to do with people who are currently in prison. We raise issues and Mr. McCabe is the conduit for that. Those things are an integral part of our work. However, our primary work is with the political ex-prisoner community. That is our target group. I refer to those who were in prison under the broad ambit of the Irish Republican Army, IRA.