Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I second the motion. However, in doing so, coming from where I do, I would still like to be able to be blunt and say I continue to have concerns. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Michéal Martin, and many others put a significant amount of time into the efforts being made in the North and were available at the crucial time. Many have invested a significant amount of time in the process in the past 20 years. I commend all those who were involved in any way.

My one regret with regard to the all-party agreement being lauded is that it is not an all-party agreement. It has been the tradition during the years for a couple of sides to get together to drive something forward, leaving others out in the cold. If one looks at the history of the DUP, traditionally it has been the "No" party. Now the party which traditionally has been the "Yes" party feels it has been left out in the cold. While I am glad we have an agreement, that matters have moved on and that agreement on policing and justice issues is so close to fruition, I am not glad that we have returned to having committees made up of two parties - three plus three - rather than having six members from many parties. If any committee set up in these Houses was to become a monopoly or duopoly, people would be concerned. It is important that I express this concern.

One of the main reasons we need progress on the issues involved is the significant dissident threat posed. Not a day goes by without there being a bomb scare or someone's life being threatened. Last night I was talking to somebody involved in the Northern Ireland customs service. While on the way to attend a function here, the person concerned received a telephone call to warn them that two threats had been made against customs service staff dealing with money and diesel laundering along the Border. There are real risks, as nobody knows better than Peadar and Fiona Heffron. I stood in the Royal Victoria Hospital with their family wondering if Peadar would survive. I was only on the fringes of it, which is not where anybody wants to be. They are in the centre, watching him trying to come back. I am very glad to hear he is at the stage where he is able to order in pizzas and is doing his upper body physio, which is very positive.

However, in this day and age, so far into the peace process, there should not be a situation where somebody is fighting for their life and their life will never be the same again. This is particularly so in this case, when he was so much a symbol of how things had changed - a Gaelic-speaking, Gaelic football-playing PSNI officer. I reiterate the point that if anything comes out of this, the message has to be the opposite of what was intended. The intention of that attack was to stop anyone else from that background joining the PSNI. Every one of us should say clearly that we are advocating that the type of person Peadar Heffron is is the type who should still come forward and give of their services for their part of their island and, indeed, their country.

There is no room for complacency or for giving succour to terrorism. It is time to move on. I welcome the new start that has been made with the appointment of a new leader of the SDLP. I wish Margaret Ritchie well, and I also wish Mark Durcan well in his new role. I would not rule out new beginnings with Fianna Fáil going into the North. We have three fora there and opportunities will arise. Much of the time, we are too worried about what people are thinking, we are worried about rocking boats. We have to balance not rocking boats with actually presenting new opportunities and ideas, and letting people find those new opportunities.

There are real issues for people in the North, such as jobs, housing, infrastructure and who will pay for maintaining the economy into the future. We all know it is public service jobs and social welfare in the main in the North. We have to take on the issues that matter to people. I commend the PSNI, the Garda Síochána and the Customs Service on the work they are doing on cross-Border crime, and I commend those involved in cross-Border education, cross-Border health and cross-Border infrastructure, in particular in terms of train links and the funding that has been recommitted for the N2-A5 road.

I reiterate that I have a problem with the fact people using the euro were being exploited. These are simple straightforward issues we should now be moving to deal with. The Assembly should be dealing with issues that impact on people's lives, such as television signals in Donegal that cannot be received in the North and vice versa. In this regard, there are mutual solutions as we move towards digital television, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is involved in that. There is also the development of the Foyle to maximise its potential into the future and there is much work in regard to trying to drive regional development, although these are long-term processes.

One of the major problems in the North is that one side has three heads and two tails, and the other side has five heads and 14 tails. That is the assumption that is made because one side does not meet the other side unless one gets to third level education. The development in Omagh, where there will be a campus of five or six schools, is positive. While the schools will not be integrated, they will share facilities, which is an important move forward.

We must think of this issue not just as a problem for "them up there" but as a problem for "us" on the island of Ireland. We do not know the other side. We look at our history but what are we taught? I can easily say, given the report I did on how to teach history in areas of recent conflict, that in the North the tradition would have been that if one was in a Protestant school, one learned about the wives of Henry VIII, and if one was in a Catholic school, one learned about British oppression during the Famine. We have to be able to teach "the other side" here as well as there. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of the other people and get to know each other.

For either side, no one will click their fingers and "the other" will disappear. We have to get to a stage where we understand each other and are able to live side by side. This comes down to us, here and there, looking at how we teach history, particularly on interfaces and on the Border. That can drive critical thinking and can drive people to analyse what they see. This presents better employees and employers into the future, which is what is really needed in the North. What I am asking for is an intervention that is useful for getting to know each other but also to develop that critical thinking and the creativity this will yield for employers and employees.

I also wish to raise the issue of parades and culture, which was touched on by the Leader. This was one of the biggest issues coming towards the end of these negotiations, as I understand it. I cringed when I heard the solution. People were saying: "It is not your road or my road anymore. It is our road, so I will march down our road", which I assume must be the Garvaghy Road. My problem is that we are not doing enough to get the understanding of what is "our road". If I hear the Lambeg drum, how do I react? When someone else hears the bodhran, how do they react? Is music being used as a weapon for perpetuating conflict? Can it be used as a tool for progressing peace? Those are the interventions we need to be very active about in preschool, primary school and right through the school curriculum because we will not change this overnight given that generations of people are involved.

As the Minister, Mr. Sammy Wilson, told me, when I was commenting on a report which suggested that people felt schools should be safe havens away from the awfulness of the community, the research of Dr. Alan McCully of the UNESCO centre at the University of Ulster at Coleraine was very clear that the children in schools do not necessarily want to be changed, but they want to know the bigger picture. They do not want the school to be a safe haven away from reality; they want the school to be at the centre of explaining to them what it is all about.

On the issue of culture, I intend to prepare a report on that issue of music and culture and how it can be used in areas of conflict to perpetuate conflict. However, we should also take the wider brief and work with education, both here and also as a current 32-county problem.

I conclude by wishing the parties in the North the best for the future, and I want to be as inclusive as possible in that. We should have a regular slot every quarter to discuss issues of mutual concern. What is good for one part of Ulster is good for all of Ulster. I look forward to a better Ulster and a better Ireland in the coming decade.