Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I am sharing time with Senator Currie. The witnesses are very welcome again. There are some great names in the Peace Summit Partnership such as the John and Pat Hume Foundation, Community Dialogue, YouthAction NI, Holywell Trust, Ulster University, Integrated Education Fund, NI Youth Forum and the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. This committee and its members have worked with most of these organisations over recent years. I thank the witnesses for the great work they have done and the great partnerships they have created.

I will comment on one or two areas. I always tell people I come from middle Ireland in the west of Ireland. I represent a Border county. We need to do an awful lot more to bring in middle Ireland. People turn off. They think that everything is fine with the Good Friday Agreement. We are in a much better place - let us be honest - but there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed such as the bill of rights and the integrated education system. There is a lot to be done there. I feel we sometimes need to extend that conversation. It is not very easy because most of the people who have an interest in the Good Friday Agreement have certain ideals about Northern Ireland, a united Ireland or whatever. We need to open up that conversation but it is not easy. People think the North is in a much better place, which it is, but there are still things bubbling under the surface. The reconciliation and shared island funds have played a critical and active role in supporting that. I very much welcome that and a lot more can be done. I have noticed that some groups, maybe from a loyalist or unionist perspective, are outside the influence and we need to bring them closer in. They are not as quickly engaged with the shared island fund. We have broken down a lot of barriers in the last number of years. I see it all around the country. There is a lot of funding out there and there are some towns and villages that are absolutely brilliant at applying for funding and some that are not. I wonder if that is an issue. Is it hard to get some areas to engage, for want of a word, with the shared island fund?

Finally, I am a very big supporter of integrated education. I do not know whether the level of integration is at 9% or 11% but-----