Ms Bronagh Hinds:

It is going to have to be a matter of an Executive allocation with support from the British and Irish Governments. We need a certain amount of investment and real North-South collaboration, just like we saw following the recent attack on Detective Chief Inspector Caldwell, with An Garda Síochána pulling in behind that. Down here, there are issues around proceeds of crime, criminal activity, drugs and so on and we need real co-operation on this island on those issues. I am sure the PSNI and An Garda Síochána are working on all of these issues and it is absolutely essential that they continue to do so.

Policing is so important because we have to be able to respond. The Chief Constable of the PSNI has said that the drop in numbers means that the capacity to investigate crime may be reduced or slowed down, there will be fewer investigations and the ability to respond to sustained protest and public disorder may also be reduced. I spoke earlier about threats last weekend to burn Northern Ireland down if some people do not get their own way. Lower police numbers simply means having a reduced presence. All of this is important if we are going to tackle paramilitarism. I mentioned the new strategy developed last year but how can the police invest in that and in tackling violence against women and girls? That is the first part of it; the protection and the investigation has to be there.

In terms of the second part, in the Fresh Start agreement there is talk of transition initiatives to help move away from paramilitary structures and activity. There has been investment in that over the years and there are people who were leading paramilitaries and who were involved in paramilitary organisations who have made the transition. I am not attacking everyone who was involved in paramilitary activity because many of them have moved on with the new process. They are playing their part and have become engaged in other activities, including in communities. However, I really do resent, 25 years later, that we are still spending money in transitioning people who have clearly demonstrated that they are not prepared to transition. I cannot square that circle. Some people are masquerading as community leaders. We are hearing this from women in communities. Those people should not have their hands on public money. That is it. This is a worry about funding, particularly European funding. The vast majority of that funding that we opened up was to go into the community and voluntary sector. Even before the PEACE fund moneys became available, we were accessing social funds in the 1980s that were coming from the EU. Who is going to sustain that sector now? I would be putting more of my money into civil society organisations and women's organisations that were on the margins of the funding, to enable them to invest and do other things. I would be putting my money into youth work and youth organisations and doing that to deal with the criminality, if I had the choice.