The Government is to provide €25 million a year to fund a conflict resolution unit to help develop peaceful solutions in trouble spots abroad, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern announced yesterday.
Addressing the diplomatic corps in Dublin Castle, Mr Ahern said that Ireland was determined to develop this new role for itself in the world following the ending of conflict in the North and the establishment of the powersharing Executive.
"True, on our own island many challenges remain, not least the need to deal with the scourge of sectarianism, and to recognise and address the needs of victims of the Troubles. Nonetheless, across the globe, Northern Ireland, Ireland as a whole, is today renowned not for conflict but for resolving conflict," said the Minister.
He said the role of the international community in helping to bring peace to the North could not be emphasised enough.
"The political, moral and material support we have received has been invaluable. And the Government is committed to sharing our experiences so that other countries and regions can benefit from the lessons we have learned."
He said that for decades peace seemed as unobtainable in Ireland as it does in other parts of the world today. "Twenty years ago, as the Border was fortified, as our economy stagnated, and as terror gripped the North, I was present at some of the first meetings of what we would come to call the Irish peace process.
"Such was the distrust and hatred ingrained across our island at that time, I would not then have believed that within just over a decade we would have arrived at the Good Friday agreement, the historic settlement between orange and green."
Mr Ahern said that just as our journey from famine to prosperity wrought a determination in the Irish people to assist those afflicted by famine and want, our journey from violence to peace today made us equally determined to assist those peoples and nations gripped by conflict.
"To that end I believe Ireland must place conflict resolution . . . alongside our existing priorities. To begin this process I have established a conflict resolution unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs," said Mr Ahern.
He added that over the rest of his term as Minister he intended to follow up this initiative by providing an annual €25 million fund to support our conflict resolution efforts.
An academic centre for conflict resolution would also be created to further develop national expertise in this area.
New fourth-level scholarships would be funded to ensure a continuous stream of academic expertise in the sector and a system of "roving ambassadors" to conflict regions would also be established.
