20 Samh 2013, 10:29
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement meets with two prominent Presbyterian Ministers to discuss the challenges facing working class communities in Belfast.
20 November 2013
The Very Reverend Dr Norman Hamilton and Very Reverend Roy Patton, both former Moderators of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and Reverend Trevor Gribben will address the Committee.
Chairman of the Committee Joe McHugh TD says: “Through frequent visits to Northern Ireland and the border region, our Committee has engaged with those at the vanguard of promoting reconciliation, tolerance and mutual respect between communities in Northern Ireland. Earlier in the year, we met Rev Hamilton and other church leaders who outlined to the Committee their concerns with the alienation being felt in the working class communities tp which they minister. Both Ministers are involved in the community effort in East Belfast to mediate the flag protests. We look forward to hearing from both Ministers on how well community relations in the city have recovered since the disruption.”
Separately, the Committee will hear from the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland to discuss their on-going work with political ex-prisoners. The Community Foundation is an independent grant-making charitable trust which has worked with loyalist and republican groups on these initiatives since 1995.
Deputy McHugh continues: “Engagement with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland will afford the Committee an opportunity to assess the issue of re-integration of ex-prisoners into the community, a key element of the Good Friday Agreement. The meeting tomorrow will consider how the current approaches on this issue might be enhanced.”
The meeting commences at 11 am with discussion with Presbyterian Ministers tomorrow Thursday 21 November in Committee Room 4 in LH 2000. Committee proceedings can be followed live here.
Ends
For further information please contact:
Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926
paul.hand@oireachtas.ie
Members of the Committee:
Deputies: Seán Conlan, Seán Crowe, Clare Daly, Regina Doherty, Frank Feighan, Martin Ferris, Peter M Fitzpatrick, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Michael P Kitt, Joe McHugh (Chair), Joe O’Reilly (Vice-Chair), Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Brendan Smith, Joanna Tuffy and Jack Wall
Senators: Maurice Cummins (Leader of the House), Jim D’Arcy, Mary Moran and Mary White