Ms Deborah Watters:

Yes. As Deputy Conway-Walsh said, it also needs to be sustained. I will be very honest about where loyalism is at present. I definitely think we have gone back ten or 15 years. We have regressed in our relationship with the other community, with policing, with people in the South of Ireland, and in our perception. All of that is through the lens of the Northern Ireland protocol. When the protocol plays out, it does not do so on leafy Malone Road. It plays out in socially disadvantaged communities. Let us be honest, middle class Protestants always travelled to Donegal but not our working-class parents in north Belfast. The one thing parents of the Strivers were looking forward to before Covid was a residential to Donegal because they had never been across the Border. Those are the issues that sustained long-term funding would address. It is not just about the gatekeepers in communities being given the access. It is about making sure that is cascaded down so that ordinary mums and dads, and ordinary young people, really get the opportunity to see the other through a different lens. It is very important.

In particular, I am living and working in communities where there is currently a policy of non-engagement. It is, "Do not engage with the Irish Government. Do not engage with Irish officials. Do not do this. Do not do that." My organisation is a restorative organisation. We stand up in communities and say our ethos is about engaging so we will continue to engage and to open the doors, but there are people who would not like me being here today. That is where we are at and it is why Strive is so important. It is not just about a youth work model. It is still about peacebuilding at its core and relationship building. I believe the loyalist community is back where we were ten or 15 years ago rather than moving forward.