Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Byrne raised the issues of bonfires earlier. With regard to the current debate, those who are in favour of bonfires argue that they are part of their cultural identity, who they are, their tradition and so on. In the South, many communities are trying to eliminate bonfires, particularly around Hallowe'en and in working-class areas. They are concerned about the impact they have on criminality and so on and the danger they pose to children. People just do not want them. In many areas in the North it seems people just do not want bonfires either because of all that surrounds them. There is an idea that if people self-regulate on the issue of bonfires, they will be able to sort out the matter themselves. Senator Daly spoke about the placing of an effigy of the late Martin McGuinness's on a bonfire last year, but it was not just an effigy. It was supposed to be Martin McGuinness in a coffin. That was insulting. There were also religious statues, images of political opponents, flags and so on. The criminality that surrounds bonfires is also an issue. People are afraid to speak out. This issue is facing us as we move into July and I do not see it being resolved at the moment. While people have spoken of having more managed bonfires, the number of bonfires does not seem to be reducing. In fact, there are probably more of them. There is a body of work to be done on that. What would Dr. Byrne suggest in that regard? Does he have any ideas on how to resolve that issue?

With regard to policing, Dr. Byrne stated that much of the evidence suggests that "policing more generally has not yet been embedded within the broader nationalist-republican community and requires systemic change at the local level if this is not to become a critical incident, as composition is of significant importance for the PSNI". Again, when one talks to people from loyalist communities, one does not find a great deal of support for the PSNI either. I refer not only to loyalists but people living in loyalist communities. The reason for the lack of support is a lack of delivery, particularly around criminality and drugs. That seems to be the message coming across not only from nationalists, but also from unionist areas. That is where the PSNI needs to step up. It will argue it does not have sufficient resources and so on. There are regular meetings between political representatives and the Chief Constable but there is still the democratic deficit which Dr. Byrne mentioned. People invested heavily in a new beginning for policing and it has not delivered for communities. People will say that other things have not happened - we have not seen the peace dividend and so on - but the people see this as very much part of the peace dividend and policing is not delivering to that community. Does Dr. Byrne have any views or academic insight?