Press Releases

A Shared Future

19th May 2003

The Community Relations Council has organised a public consultation meeting to encourage voluntary and community groups to respond to the Government's proposals on improving relations in Northern Ireland . The meeting is taking place on Tuesday 20 May at the Fitzwilliam International Hotel at the Belfast International Airport .

The consultation document, A Shared Future - improving relations in Northern Ireland, was launched by the Government (OFMDFM) on 28 January 2003 requesting public responses by 31 July.

This meeting is one of a series being organised by the Community Relations Council over the next few months to encourage public debate and stimulate responses to the Government document. The main voluntary and community sector organisations are being invited and it is hoped that they in turn will undertake further consultation in their own areas of work.

According to Duncan Morrow , Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council, one of the speakers at the 20 May meeting,

"Never before has there been an opportunity for so many people to participate and shape the design of a policy for peace-building. The Shared Future consultation document offers every citizen in NI and beyond the opportunity to contribute to the new shape of community relations policy in Northern Ireland from the ground up, by contributing ideas about the aims and objectives, and emphases for the future on the best ways to deliver these."

Frances McCandless, Director of Policy at NICVA (NI Council for Voluntary Action), welcomed the consultation.

"NICVA views this consultation as one of the most important we may ever have in Northern Ireland . Questions around whether we can live in a shared society are fundamental to so many aspects of our lives - health,education, housing, the economy and others. Living in a divided society costs us not only in terms of the loss of the richness and diversity we could be sharing, but also in very tangible ways such as the duplication of spending on public services which could be used to fund better quality services for all of us and the negative impacts for inward investment every time images of conflict are beamed around the world. We welcome the first attempt by government to really have an open debate about these issues and the commitment to a strategy to tackle them at every level."

For further information contact

Dympna McGlade (Policy Development Director)

or Ray Mullan (Communications Director)

at the Community Relations Council, tel 028 90 227500

Note to Editor

The Shared Future document acknowledges that a lot of valuable community relations work has and is, being achieved. However, it also recognises that, in light of the changed political and wider environment, there is a need to reconsider current policies, programmes and delivery mechanisms. Therefore, the consultation document aims to stimulate the widest possible debate on what the fundamental community relations aims, objectives and policies should now be and what mechanisms should be used to achieve these.

For further information contact

Ray Mullan (Press Officer), Community Relations Council,

tel 028 9022 7500