10 May 2013, 14:37
The Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Joe McHugh TD, today welcomed the target set by the First and Deputy First Ministers to dismantle all of Northern Ireland’s peace walls by 2023.
10 May 2013
Deputy McHugh says: “First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness agreed last night to resolve an enduring and visible legacy of the conflict, the 60 so-called peace walls in interface areas. Committee Members are acutely aware that, despite many years of an embedded peace process, these walls not only remain, but some are higher now than they were in 1998. The setting of this ambitious target is to be welcomed.”
“Recent Committee visits to Belfast, and engagement with community representatives in a variety of working class areas across the city, have highlighted some of the issues that endure in these communities. Those at the vanguard of securing peace within and between loyalist and republican communities cautioned Committee Members that it is the ‘walls in people’s minds’ that present the greater challenge to genuine reconciliation, tolerance and mutual respect. So it is particularly positive that 10,000 cross community work placements for young people have been included in the proposals in tackle sectarian divisions.”
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Members of the Committee:
Deputies Seán Conlan, Seán Crowe, Clare Daly, Regina Doherty, Peter Fitzpatrick, Frank Feighan, Martin Ferris, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Peter Fitzpatrick, Michael P. Kitt, Joe McHugh, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Joe O’Reilly, Brendan Smith and Joanna Tuffy.
Senators Jim D’Arcy, Maurice Cummins, Mary Moran, Mary White.
Chairman: Joe McHugh, TD Vice-Chairman: Joe O'Reilly, TD