Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will make just one point before we go into our second round. Some people are joining us online and I will bring them in in the second round. One point that strikes me is that some of us were recently in Belfast talking to community groups. They were not political people. They were in places like Turf Lodge. The people there tell us that the discussions have ended, there is increasing isolation of the two communities, nothing is moving on the ground and that, perhaps because of the attitude of some leading unionists, there is hostility there now. There are all these great ideas and all this wonderful, important and essential research being done but, returning to Mr. Ahern's point about having everybody involved, if we do not get that, we will not get anywhere. That will be the end of it. All our efforts, from my perspective, have to be on what Mr. Ahern spoke about there. It is a matter of getting cross-party and community group involvement. Young people in parts of Belfast cannot and will not associate - they are not allowed to associate, actually - with people on the other side of the peace line because of the atmosphere in some of the communities. That is what is really damaging.