Mr. John O'Hagan:

I will introduce myself again in case it was not picked up at the start of the meeting. My name is John O'Hagan and I am the manager of Tar Anall, which is an ex-prisoner organisation in west Belfast.

I think it is important that we take on board what Mr. Quigley outlined because there is a concerted effort to restrict and restrain any attempt to allow political ex-prisoners to develop and re-engage as equal citizens. Mr. Quigley has given a number of examples around where unionism has tried to frustrate that. Proactive attempts to deal with people in this way, like the Special Advisers Bill and the Political Appointments Bill, have failed, as recently as last week in the latter case. We see this with funding. One of the other Senators made reference to the funding. When we look at piece 1, 2 and 3 it was broadly accepted that these were mechanisms or opportunities to engage with the political ex-prisoner community. We see a concerted attempt by enemies of the peace process and of the Good Friday Agreement very clearly trying to restrict any elements of positive funding. This is where we see the Peace Forum not doing what it was meant to do when it was first designed.

We can also look at it in another context. When we argue for small pots of funding for community organisations such as Tar Isteach, Coiste na nIarchimí and Tar Anall, automatically there is political opposition from unionism saying "No, we will not give that type of money over", even though people within their own community require the same assistance. They are so fixated on the republican ex-prisoner community that they will tell lies and attack. They will write off one community in the hope that we will get nothing to support our community. Even though they have signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, they do not proactively want to support it. It is very evident why funding is seen as a separate issue. It is clearly not when you are dealing with it from a Northern political perspective where opponents of republicanism will never allow funding to go where it is needed within our communities.