Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the shared island civic society fund, I was 20 years of age in 1997 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1997. The majority of people on this island have adult memories that do not involve the Troubles. That is a positive thing. However, it also means that we must make sure we do not forget the lessons that were learned from process relating to the development of the Good Friday Agreement, namely, ideas around parity of esteem and a shared space. The civic society fund is an important way of getting people to engage with each other. I wish to talk about young people in particular in this regard. In the past, we had programmes, such as those operated by Boston College, Co-operation Ireland, etc., that did this on a regular basis. I hope we can work with young people at the civic society forum to encourage them to understand each other and why their communities come from different places, but also to understand that they often come from similar circumstances. The political and religious context shapes their perception of each other rather than the circumstances in which they live on a day-to-day basis.

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