Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Education and tourism are highlighted in the charter. It has always struck me that in the past 20 years, the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process did something on this island that has not happened in many countries throughout the world. Some of the peace process was a high-wire act between political parties but an awful lot of it was done on the ground between communities involving people who had not spoken to one another about difficult issues. They may have met at the mart and spoken about the price of cattle or they may have met somewhere and shared scones but they never spoke about the issues that were affecting their lives. They began to talk about those issues and this had an impact on the peace process. This is something we missed. Throughout the world we have conflict. We speak about climate change. If we could end all the wars in the world the problem of climate change would be pretty quickly resolved because an awful lot of it flows from conflict and the inability of governments or structures to be able to work together properly.

In Ireland, we have an example of how divided communities and societies found a way of working with one another on a way forward. There is an opportunity in this, from a educational tourism point of view, to bring people to meet these communities, speak to them, share experiences and build a knowledge base among people in the community sector throughout all of the island.

Senator Coffey mentioned a Quaker village. Many of the towns and villages in the country go back 400 or 500 years. They were the consequence and outflow of plantations and other events that happened. We are all both victims and products of our histories. Anywhere in the world the history of people is similar. It is all about power imbalances and economic imbalances. We have the history of these imbalances and their impact on the future. The potential of what we have in Ireland has never been properly realised, in respect of bringing people from all over the world to learn, understand and build on the huge effort made. The consequence of that effort has never been fully examined. Some universities have done work and people have come to do studies but that is also a high-wire act. Getting into communities where the real action happens has the potential to bring different types of tourism and education. This could be part of it.

When I read through the charter, I was interested that two of the issues mentioned were tourism and education. The idea other countries could learn from Ireland is a no-brainer. Everyone can see it. Throughout the world we see political conflict and ideas coming to the fore that are about resentment and one-upmanship rather than the type of co-operation we have managed to develop here. Not only would it be good for people to come here, it would also be good to sustain and bed down the process we have had for the past 20 years. Some people speak about the peace process as if it were something that is finished. It is far from it. It is a work in progress and it requires continued evaluation, work and resources. Particularly, it requires continued effort from all of the parties involved to ensure that we bring it to its conclusion.

One way of doing it might be to invite others from outside and develop tourism and education projects around it.