Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I welcome the fact there has been an increase in the reconciliation fund from the Department. However, I would like to know where the money is going, what groups avail of it and what type of work they are doing. It would be useful to get that information onto the public record.

This work is vital. As Deputy Smith said, some Members of the House recently visited Belfast and met people from south, north and east Belfast. We saw the actual work taking place on the ground, much of it funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is hugely important work and, if only for selfish reasons, we want to see it continue because the work these groups are doing will determine the type of society, country and people we will be in the future.

The flag flying issue creates problems for many of those groups. At the end of the day, however, reconciliation and equality is not about putting things on the back boiler. Rosa Parks did not one day decide "Oh well. I will sit down the back", and think about when it would suit people to change. Equality is very important to the whole work of reconciliation. It is about shared spaces.

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