Mr. Séamas de Faoite:

I thank the Chair. I reiterate my thanks to Senator McGahon for making this session happen. I hope this is the start of further engagement that this group can be involved in.

Taking Senator Currie's question first, I have to agree with Ms Groogan about perceptions of the North in the South. I lived in Clondalkin, which is not far from Dublin West, for ten years and I know the area quite well. Similarly, I had to deal with mixed and strange perceptions about the North from people in Dublin. That is a real mindset barrier that has to be challenged. Like Mr. Hughes, I believe tourism is a major opportunity to try to break down some of the misconceptions, and to allow people from the South to understand that Belfast as a region, in particular, has moved on significantly even in the past 20 years. We face not insignificant challenges that have to be overcome, but certainly the iterations of violence that we have seen on our streets are not an indication of how the rest of the city is or of the welcome we extend to people who come to visit.

Senator Currie asked about identifying three particular issues that are coming to the fore. All of us have witnessed challenges with the provision of healthcare over the past year because of the pandemic. We are particularly aware of them in the North because of the challenges we face with hospital waiting lists and the political failure to deal with these issues. We are told there is political consensus on reform but, quite frankly, sometimes there has not been the political will to deliver it or to provide the political support to the minister to be able to carry through some of the reforms to deliver the excellent healthcare service we need. The NHS has been spectacular in how it has responded to, and dealt with, the issues in the pandemic, but fundamentally there are 350,000 people on hospital waiting lists. Coming out of the worst stages of the pandemic, we have to deal with a serious crisis.

There is also a severe fear of us sliding backwards. I said in my opening contribution that I was born on the day a massacre occurred in my local community. I was told throughout my life that I would never have to experience the type of pain and suffering people in my area have been through, but I woke up one morning to find out that my friend had been shot dead on the streets of Derry. My generation was told we would never have to experience that pain. There is a sense and fear that with the continued emergence of paramilitary organisations, we are sliding backwards. Resources and support must be put into tackling paramilitarism and breaking the stranglehold that those organisations have over local communities, so nobody else from our generation of young elected representatives or the generation that follows has to go through that as well.