mr president as one of the three northern ireland meps involved in securing the original peace funding in nineteen ninety-four which i believe has made an immense contribution to northern ireland's social and economic well-being i would personally like to thank and pay tribute to the hard work of those who over the years since then have given freely of their time and put considerable effort into the work of the local strategy partnerships
they have shouldered the burden for the implementation which i know was a very onerous task
this december they will be stood down and they have been given little thanks for what they have achieved
many have criticised the peace programme accusing it of having non-measurable outcomes
however i say to the critics that they are wrong what the programme facilitated was cooperation and partnership at local level and that would not have happened without peace funding
people were brought together to work in partnership who would never have had that opportunity if it had not been for the peace programme
could i ask you mr president to write to the overall strategy partnerships board expressing the thanks of this parliament because we are central to what has been achieved to those people who have unceremoniously been stood down after all these years of working and giving their contributions freely to the people they hope to help
