Mr. Eugene McGlone:

I will pick one issue, Ms McKeown has one or two she wants to pick up and Mr. O'Connor has been making notes. One or two comments were made which demand some further explanation and responses. Mr. Durkan spoke about the idea afoot that the Good Friday Agreement seems to have survived and there is no need to do anything else. The person saying that must be blind and deaf and live up a mountain in a hermitage. Looking at any of the news programmes emanating from Northern Ireland, it is quite clear the peace process is starting to come asunder, whether it is over daily protests on the streets over the flag issue, which was raised in the past four contributions. That is indicative of serious concerns and issues.

It is a significant idea related to whether a flag should be put up on the City Hall in Belfast or not but it becomes irrelevant because clearly there is concern among some of those articulating these issues that they feel alienated from their society.

We are of the view that a bill of rights is for everyone, it is not selective. Those people would have the same rights as we would and that every other citizen should have. The bill of rights should underpin their rights on a number of issues, such as feeling safe in their own environment. They must not feel they are under pressure in terms of cultural identity. Currently with the growth of activity from dissident republicans around Northern Ireland, it is clear the Good Friday Agreement has bedded down in the way we hoped it would and the way that worked to bed it down. We are of the view that it is a symptom of the continuing polarisation in society that is being accelerated simply by virtue of the fact that there is not a guaranteed rights package that everyone can buy into. Everyone bought into the Good Friday Agreement and the devil was in the detail. Fifteen years later, we are not even discussing the detail in any real sense. That is something that must be looked at.

In a sense it is laughable. We sent a delegation to Colombia to talk about the lessons that can be learned from the peace process that might assist in the peace process that will hopefully evolve in Colombia and there were Unionists on that delegation. It is strange that the trade union movement can bring together people from diverse political backgrounds in Northern Ireland and take them to Colombia to talk about the development of peace but we cannot get them to sit down and agree a bill of rights for our own people in a wee place like Northern Ireland, along with a fundamental charter of rights for the island of Ireland. It is strange we cannot develop such a process among ourselves.

Deputy O'Reilly asked about ICTU formally engaging with the Unionist parties. We engage as much as we can, we have formal engagement with the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, and with the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party, as well as with the SDLP, Alliance Party and Sinn Féin. We meet with them as often as we can and we press them on the issue. We are aware of some of their concerns but not all of them and we cannot understand why someone would oppose a bill of rights. Why would someone say it is unnecessary? There are those who suggest we should look at a British model for a bill of rights and that we should latch on to that. That is not what is contained in the Good Friday Agreement. We want the Northern Ireland bill of rights as guaranteed in the Good Friday Agreement. We think it is necessary, and that we have the maturity to develop it and build upon it.