Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I am scared to state that I will never have a wife either. Perhaps I should be politically correct and use the term "spouse" in that regard.

On a serious note, the negotiations on the devolution of policing and justice powers and the resolution of all other outstanding issues in Northern Ireland have entered their tenth day. The people of the island of Ireland want these negotiations to reach a satisfactory conclusion. There will be a historic occurrence in the Oireachtas later today when the Minister for Education and Science and the Northern Ireland Minister for Education appear before the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to discuss particular issues.

I raise these matters in tandem because I wish to ask, in the context of marching and culture, if not understanding the perspective of those on the other side is a barrier to progress being made. Is that to which I refer preventing the people of Ulster, in particular, and the island of Ireland, in general, working in co-operation with each other? I ask that the report I compiled on the teaching of history in areas of recent conflict be the subject of a debate in the House. That report relates to trying to promote the image of the other and allowing people to consider situations from another perspective. The core value and focus of the Council of Europe at present is trying to encourage people to understand that there is another side to everything.

We must find a mechanism which will allow people to find what might be termed the Riverdance answer, as it were, in respect of matters of culture. I refer to a situation where it would be possible to watch individuals playing Lambeg drums and bodhráns on the same stage and where it might be possible for people of both traditions to overcome the historical differences that exist between them. I ask the Leader to make time available for the debate to which I refer.

I wish to draw attention to the fact that Peadar Heffron, the Gaelic-speaking, Gaelic football-playing PSNI officer, has emerged from the coma into which he fell following the bomb attack on his car. Constable Heffron is eating on his own, is undergoing physiotherapy and is making progress. That is the sort of successful outcome we wish to see. Members want to be able to engage in debates on real people with real lives, real futures and real potential. We should not be ten days into negotiations on when matters in the North will finally be resolved. I expect that those negotiations will reach a conclusion but I ask that the process be speeded up. There is a need for a long-term plan to allow people North and South to get to know each other.