John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ms Hinds's opening statement outlines the real impact of the Women's Coalition, as well as the female perspective on the Good Friday Agreement and the negotiations leading to it. Ms Eleanor Kane, who is in transition year at Dundalk Grammar School and is with me today, looked at the statement and drafted a number of questions on it. Much as I would like to take credit for these very good questions, I cannot do so because they are Eleanor's. When she read the statement she noted that Ms Hinds said that one strategy was to call out language and behaviour, particularly the ingrained adversarial politics of antagonism, bullying, sectarianism and the militaristic language that was present at the negotiations. Where was that coming from? Was it coming solely from hardline unionism? Where was most of that coming from at the time?

Ms Hinds said that it is time for all paramilitaries to leave the scene and argued that they should not receive any public funding. She also said that there should be a solid strategy to deal with their criminality. That is what they are - criminal gangs masquerading as paramilitaries. It is 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement but paramilitaries still have a role, albeit less substantial, in parts of Northern Irish society. Will Northern Ireland ever be rid of paramilitaries or will they always exist?

Ms Hinds mentioned that her presence and the presence of the Women's Coalition interrupted the behaviour that was there and facilitated the setting of a new standard of discourse and a new standard around language and behaviour. Does Ms Hinds believe that in the last two or three years the language and discourse has reverted to what the coalition was trying to stop and stamp out 25 years ago? Where is political discourse in Northern Ireland today?

As I said, I would like to take credit for those questions but I cannot. They are all the work of Eleanor.