Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start by giving those present a very warm welcome. I thank them for their presentation. As far as I am concerned, the work they are doing is very powerful. We as a committee, or Government members within the committee, can do to help their cause and expand their programme, we absolutely need to do. Some of their testimony today has been very strong and clear. Politicians are inclined at times to make comments here and there along the way, as if we know everything that has gone on in Northern Ireland, when actually we do not, for the very reason that we do not engage enough with communities in Northern Ireland. I am not saying that for any one part; I am saying it for us all. That is my strongly held opinion. The point that really came home to roost for me today was that made by Ms Holohan about loyalists having regressed ten or 15 years. That is a very serious statement, but one to which we down south would very much want to listen.

On the back of what the Chairman said about going up to meet the groups in Belfast and them coming down here, I suggest that we go up first on one of our trips to meet people in their own communities and get a better understanding. We too are learning as we move along and as things progress. We need to know more about communities. Many of us come from a nationalist perspective and we certainly need to know its views, but we are very much lacking the loyalist perspective. It behoves us to start to get an understanding of all sides and ensure that all voices are heard, recognised and looked after.

I congratulate Strive on the approach it is taking because too many organisations work on one side or the other. I was struck by Ms Holohan's remark with regard to the religious and political divide. How true is that? That is really where our problems are. If it is a political divide, then we discuss things on a political basis. Religion should have nothing to do with this but, unfortunately, it does. We are wasting our time talking about border polls if we are not doing the work on the ground, because a border poll will not have a basis. Those present have very much brought that home to roost today. They make a very important point.

I very much want to help with contributing towards having the Governments, especially that on this side of the Border, work with Strive to try, if we can, to develop more funding for it and develop it as an organisation. Rather than just the Six Counties, this should be done on an eleven-county basis because those Border counties and areas are as badly affected as anywhere in the Six Counties. We should be dealing with all of this on an eleven-county basis and I would like to see the organisation expanding in that regard on the basis of what it is. It does excellent work.

I remember meeting a lady called Betty Holmes at the Lifford-Clonleigh Resource Centre approximately 20 years ago. She started off Lifestart. She has done great health work since in terms of cancer care and patient care and is an excellent individual. The centre ran a programme called Lifestart which was about giving support to parents with a new child, until the age of six. We all bring kids into this world but we do not have a clue what we are doing and we learn as we go along. I was given fantastic information and support. That centre does fantastic work.

I also know about the work that is being done with the likes of St. Johnston, Newtowncunningham and other areas along the Border. I heard what the witnesses said about the protocol and all these things do not help at all. I agree with the witnesses that transgenerational trauma is what we need to undo and the witnesses are involved in doing that. It is about the next generations; it is not about us. We do not want things to keep repeating.

In light of the 11 counties that I referred to, do the witnesses have plans to expand across that basis? If they do, I ask them to come back to us and give us a breakdown of what those plans are. Do the witnesses engage with the shared island unit or with any of the research it does? If they do not, we would like them to do so because it is vitally important that they do. It is particularly important that they engage with the research that is going on as they can be key players in a lot of the research that other organisations and academics are doing, including the likes of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. There are 62 pieces of research ongoing on the whole island and the witnesses need to be feeding into that.