Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the visitors very much for the presentations. These are important issues. We are 20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement and progress is urgently needed on a number of issues. When we were in Belfast recently, the victims were people who outlined to us very clearly that their particular issues have not been addressed either.

Will the witnesses clarify how many former prisoners Coiste na n-larchimí represents? What network does the organisation have? How many loyalist former prisoners belong to a similar representative organisation?

Mr. Culbert spoke of the lack of access to third level education. Is this on the grounds of finance? What is it that denies access to third level education for people who are former prisoners?

With regard to the lack of a functioning Assembly and Executive in Northern Ireland, I presume this puts back further the issues and the means of dealing with the day-to-day issues that victims, former prisoners or others need to have addressed.