Baroness O'Loan:

I thank the committee members for their very interesting questions. Senator Chambers asked about political instability and Deputy Richmond finished up on the same issue. We have already talked about it to some small degree. Part of the problem of political instability lies in a perception among some people in Northern Ireland, possibly quite a few, that the Government in Westminster does not care what happens in Northern Ireland so long as the problem goes away. The Westminster Government is not perceived as always acting as honest brokers. That is a major problem for stability here.

I had the privilege to serve for three years as a special envoy for Ireland to Timor-Leste. It was a unique situation to have a northerner doing this, but it was a privilege and I saw at close quarters the workings of the Irish Government and Civil Service. Wherever those opportunities are seized, they can enhance stability, but it has to be done in a way which embraces all the people of Northern Ireland. It cannot just be nationalist and republican parties in Northern Ireland who are engaging with the Irish Government. It has to be the other way round. Our politicians here from the other parties have to engage with that and accept it as a reality. It is in their financial and economic interests to do so.

The issues of developing stability and economic success in Northern Ireland absolutely go hand in hand. One cannot proceed without the other. Everybody has to accept that; it is in everybody's interests. We do not want to slip back into the kind of thing that some of the loyalists, for example, are threatening us with and that the dissident republicans are continuing to inflict on us. There is a very real need for the two to meet together and for all the institutions, whether they are North-South committees or British-Irish commissions, to seize every opportunity on every occasion to demonstrate to the people of Northern Ireland a coherent respect for the working relationship between the Governments in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Westminster.