Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Earlier this week, Members of this and the other House had the opportunity of meeting with a delegation led by the newly re-elected SDLP MP, Dr. Alasdair McDonnell from south Belfast. He accompanied the newly elected moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly of Ireland, the Rt. Reverend Gordon Hamilton. The Leader will be aware that on one or two occasions in recent months I asked him to consider having a debate on Northern Ireland prior to the summer recess and that this debate would be wide-ranging rather than focusing, as I understand he intends to do, on the Saville inquiry, welcome though it is.

It was a breath of fresh air to listen to the Rt. Reverend Hamilton. He is adopting a conciliatory, cross-community approach but he also had some frightening figures to give to those who met him. Internecine strife may have ended in Northern Ireland but sectarianism is rife and pervasive and, as he put it, some 90% of the population of Northern Ireland are living in what he would refer to as their single identity areas. More so-called peace walls have been erected in Belfast since the Good Friday Agreement than have been dismantled and it is not only exclusive to Belfast; it is across Northern Ireland.

Those of us in the South are living in a comfort zone because the peace process is working on a superficial level - the Assembly is working, cross-Border relations are good and British-Irish relations are excellent. All I ask the Leader, in light of the views of the newly elected moderator and other views that have been expressed across the spectrum in Northern Ireland, is that we in this House would take the opportunity of assessing where we stand in our relationship with the North and whether we could be helpful in advancing the peace process.