Mr. John Boyle:

I have two hats as I am also on the executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, as is our deputy general secretary, Ms Deirdre O'Connor. Mr. McCamphill is the current president. Wearing my teacher union hat first, we have been collaborating and co-operating with colleagues across the Border. We organise in many schools, preschools and secondary schools in the North. We have had a very close working relationship with the other unions. There are five education unions in total for teachers and a number of others for non-teaching staff. We work very closely together. Work at union level is funded but what is not funded is the work that is needed underneath it. There were certainly opportunities for EU funding for schools getting involved in North-South projects. To me, as a principal teacher, it appeared there was much more take up on east-west projects and European projects than on North-South projects. For any school that engaged in these projects, this type of co-operation breaks down a lot of barriers, not only for the children and their parents but for the teachers themselves. It will be a big concern that this funding stream will no longer be there.

Beyond this, we are trying at all times to convince the authorities North, South and in London that education is the passport to the future. If there is to be investment for an Ireland of the future, it needs to be put in early years education. It is 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement and most young primary school children do not have any memory, thank God, of what the generation before them had to go through. If we start building at this level, the one thing we will have to keep in mind is that it has to be inclusive. I attended a number of the events in Belfast, as did colleagues of mine. Many of the speakers were very passionate that the conversation needs to develop quickly. I can understand this, but any new Ireland will have to be very conscious that the Good Friday Agreement also offers choices to the minority community on the island. Work on this at school level and in the education system is the way to bring people along. Even if it takes a while longer to get people to the position where they are ready to make decisions on constitutional change, it would be well worth investing in for the children and the students of Ireland.