A LEADING mediator has warned that Northern Ireland must be prepared for the fact that special European Union financial support for the peace process will run out in three years and new funds must be found to support reconciliation.
Brendan McAllister, head of Mediation Northern Ireland, said yesterday that while there was a settled peace and political process in Northern Ireland, the process of healing sectarian and community divisions, which remained a huge challenge, must continue.
Mediation Northern Ireland and the Scottish Mediation Network organised the three-day European Mediation Conference at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, which attracted over 400 mediators from 40 countries.
"There is terrific interest in how peace has been evolving here," said Mr McAllister. He added that the defining feature of the Troubles was violence, but now "a defining feature is division".
There was a peace settlement but the divisions still must be tackled. He believed it would take one or two generations before there would be a significant reduction in sectarianism and community division.
The Belfast Agreement was "wonderful and important" but the work of peace-building in Northern Ireland had to continue, and must also be properly supported. There would be one more tranche of European peace funding which would end in 2011.
Mr McAllister, who is about to retire as head of Mediation Northern Ireland to take up a post as one of the North's four victims' commissioners, said there were other areas of greater conflict where EU money needed to be directed.
He was fairly sure there would be no more major European aid to help bolster the peace process here.
"We have been very indulged and very well-supported internationally. There are other parts of the world where there are marked differences between their conditions and ours," he said.
Northern Ireland had enjoyed the support of the administrations in London, Dublin, Washington and Brussels. Responsibility for future funding to address sectarianism must therefore come from the Northern Executive, he added.
Mr McAllister said he was hopeful for the future. "I remain optimistic about where we are as a society but not complacent."
Pat Colgan, chief executive of the Special EU Programmes Body, told the conference that the work in progressing towards a peaceful society in Northern Ireland had been underpinned by Europe.