Ms Ailbhe Smyth:

First, on hard-to-reach voices, while I was speaking about women earlier, I am extremely conscious that there are so many groups where gender is also important. It was in the back of my mind that I had not actually talked about different ethnicities, migrant populations or people with disabilities, for example. It is a difficult area because it is quite complicated. To follow on from some of what Ms DeSouza was saying, it is really important that there is a sense that to move forward, there has to be a process and a framework which is about awareness raising and education. It does not have to call itself anything much more complicated than that. It is about saying that bringing people to the point where they have the kind of understanding as well as information that enables them to participate in what is ultimately a political process is very important. So much of the community-based women's education that I and others have been involved in, much of it cross-Border, including for example the Women's Collective Ireland that I work with and that works with the Shankill and Falls women's centres, is rooted in that sense of a collective endeavour aimed at raising people's awareness. It is about making people understand what is important to them and what is of interest. People are not going to engage in something unless they think it is important but also that they can do something about it. Women are not stupid. We know that this is important but there is a sense, particularly for women who are experiencing forms of marginalisation and disadvantage, that there is nothing they can do about this. Their lives are incredibly busy so they decide there is nothing they can do about X or Y. We have to create situations which are fundamentally educational.