Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I missed the earlier part of Ms Nelson’s contribution because I was at another meeting. I welcome her to the committee. What she outlined in her opening contribution is very important. She reinforced the need for investment in the work of grassroots organisations working with marginalised women and the voluntary and community sector, and we all endorse that. It is critical that adequate supports are provided to people working with marginalised communities.

Ms Nelson mentioned two cross-Border projects. It is very important, whatever research or collaboration is going on, that it is on an all-Ireland and cross-Border basis. Does Ms Nelson see much difference in emphasis in, say, the University of Ulster approach as opposed to the University College Cork approach, or is it by and large the same?

Ms Nelson mentioned that the Department for Communities is the lead Department from the point of view of supporting organisations like her own. Obviously, there is a role for the Department of Justice and the Department of Health in the work that her group and other groups undertake. Do those Departments assist her group in any way? I know different groups in this country can have funding streams from different Departments and also from the local authorities in some instances. Some programmes that are funded by central government here are often administered through the local authorities. A lot of that is supporting the work of community groups, both from the point of view of improving amenities and facilities and also supporting ongoing work.

Deputy Conway-Walsh mentioned PEACEPLUS as a possibility. I know that since the first PEACE programme in the 1990s, it and each of its successor programmes had different programmes and projects which brought together marginalised people from different communities, North and South. There were different aspects. Some of it was based on women working in disadvantaged communities or providing youth services or other learning and skills courses for different communities. PEACEPLUS is a good idea and it might be a body worth talking to because it has very substantial funding for the next four to five years.

Ms Nelson rightly mentioned the need to be included in all discussions, and everybody should be included in any discussions that concern the future constitutional arrangements on this island. She will recall there was a civic forum in Northern Ireland shortly after the Good Friday Agreement. My understanding, from talking to groups and individuals who participated in that forum, is that it was successful but, unfortunately, it is a devolved decision and the position of the assembly or the Executive at the time meant it did not continue. I know many of the marginalised groups who participated at the time said publicly that they regretted its demise. A commitment was made in a successor agreement - either New Decade, New Approach or Fresh Start - that a similar type of civic forum called a civic panel would be established to ensure that all representative organisations and groups would have an opportunity to meet in a structured forum.

To Ms Nelson's knowledge, are any of the political parties or major representative organisations taking an active part in trying to get the civic panel provided for in the agreement established as a successor to the Civic Forum for Northern Ireland, which, unfortunately, had a short lifespan? That forum had the potential to do good work. Many things do not happen in Northern Ireland as a result of a lack of interest from the Government in London but, to my knowledge, this is a devolved responsibility. Does Ms Nelson see merit in establishing a civic forum, as was envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement?