Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will continue to raise the issues mentioned by Deputy McGrath. I consistently engage with at least ten such groups on issues including the shooting of Mr. Pat Finucane and the Miami Showband massacre. I make the case to the British Government and to the Northern Ireland Office and my officials will continue to do so. I will return to the Deputy's point on the Civil Service.

Deputy Sargent's point about the sectarian gulf continues to be of major concern because in some of these communities overcoming these issues is difficult. We are trying, through every channel, including the Ulster Political Research Group, the reconciliation fund for North-South and Anglo-Irish co-operation, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Ireland Fund from the United States and the economic initiative to change that position as much as possible through the education system and co-operation among religious institutions to break down those barriers of mistrust and to work with the initiative to remove graffiti and flags. The parties are working directly to build cross-party contacts and dialogue. Sinn Féin has been doing this for some time. This is important.

Deputy McGrath raised an important point about a member of our Civil Service. The PSNI informed us that it had reason to believe there was a threat against an Irish official working closely with loyalist communities. Measures were taken to ensure the officer's safety. It was a matter of concern and we went to some efforts to deal with it. Beyond that I do not propose to comment on the details of individual cases. We all join in deploring this threat. Some of the strongest condemnations came from within the loyalist communities. Several loyalist leaders underlined the importance of the work the individual had been doing to assist their communities. While the incident will not diminish our determination to do all we can to assist the process of transformation in loyalism, we had to take protective measures for the individual official.

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