Understanding both sides in Northern conflict would promote reconciliation, writes Tony Kennedy.
We are becoming a progressively more segregated society on this island and no one seems to care. There are more peace walls five years into our "peace process" than there were when the agreement was signed, while surveys show that increasing numbers of people are living in segregated estates.
The Northern Ireland Life and Times survey shows a declining faith in the capacity of the peace process to deliver better community relations. In 1998, 50 per cent of people said they regarded inter-community relations as getting better.
Five years later, that's down to 30 per cent. Correspondingly the proportion of people who felt relations had got worse rose alarmingly from 5 to 23 per cent.
This is more than an interesting statistical analysis. Behind the percentages lies a very real threat to peace for everyone on the island. An increasingly mistrustful and segregated society will continually put the peace process under strain, forcing politicians on both sides to take more extreme positions and leaving opportunities for dissidents to gain support and confidence.
Far from being a Northern Ireland problem, the Government and the people of the Republic need to ask themselves questions as well. The first IRA ceasefire brought a wave of hope and confidence throughout the Republic.
The ending of the same ceasefire brought thousands on to the streets up and down the country in protest. The signing of the Belfast Agreement seemed to offer a new dawn, and interest and enthusiasm were for a limited time renewed.
Long years of stalling and frustration since then have eaten away at the desire to get involved. In many people's eyes it has ceased to be a source of hope and expectation and become a story of unremitting tedium and cynicism. A time to change the TV channel if ever there was one.
This may be understandable, but it is not acceptable.
To adapt a remark by Prof Joe Lee, the current feeling of most people in the Republic seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of reconciliation as long as nothing need be done about it.
The Government is expending a great deal of effort half-handling the problem. Like most politicians, it assumes that a political settlement with generally agreed structures means a peaceful and reconciled society.
In this vision the moment the agreement is up and running, Catholic and Protestant kids will join hands and enter the promised land of peace and prosperity, doubtless with an uplifting, swelling angels' chorus in the background.
If this sounds a simplistic analysis it's because it is. If the devolved administration does get re-established a huge step forward will have been made, but if the Government thinks this will bring about reconciliation on its own, it is living in fantasyland.
It's hard to escape the conclusion that for the Government, reconciliation is a slogan, not a real objective. Like any properly run organisation, governments have to plan to deal with issues they regard as serious.
It may have a plan to implement the agreement; does it have a plan to promote reconciliation? What are the objectives, targets and means?
What roles will each government department, the NGOs, the European Union Peace II programme play and how will they be co-ordinated? What are the resources being committed?
Rather than trying to implement the agreement and hope for the best, shouldn't the Government also have a strategy to improve inter-community relations on the island?
The full implementation of the agreement and improving inter-community relations are the only basis on which one can say that peace is secure.
That is not to say a plan will guarantee success, but the absence of one dooms all efforts to failure.
A perfect example of the Government's thinking (if thinking is not too strong a word) on reconciliation is its treatment of the Reconciliation Fund.
A pitifully small amount is put towards this every year and much of it is frittered away on projects that have little or no value in terms of improving relations between the two communities.
It's no more than a token gesture towards the principle of reconciliation.
The personal commitment of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to peace in an abstract sense cannot be doubted. Nor can the commitment of the opposition front bench.
They all want the peace to last and know full well that it is in the interests of everyone that it does.
However, it is unfortunate that the understandable desire of the major opposition parties to present a united front on Northern Ireland has discouraged them from constructively criticising the Government's lack of action.
(Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan's questioning the Government on reconciliation deserves a mention as an honourable exception in this regard.)
All the political parties can and must take a lead in encouraging many more people in the Republic to take an active role in promoting reconciliation and mutual understanding.
This is not about concessions, deals or denying your (or anyone else's) heritage and past.
It's about addressing the still stereotyped and simplistic view of many in the Republic towards both communities in Northern Ireland. (The feelings of betrayal felt by many Northern nationalists towards the Republic need to be acknowledged and addressed, as well as the feelings of unionists.) Unlike the political negotiations, they are not necessarily about generating agreement, but generating understanding.
While the Government should take a lead, the onus is on all of us to play our part.
A feeling in both communities in Northern Ireland that people in the Republic and elsewhere understand them (if they do not always agree with them) would be progress on the road to reconciliation.
To borrow a phrase, one small step can be taken by everyone by getting involved in one of the many charities and organisations that are trying to make a difference.
Most importantly, everyone can seek to look behind the headlines and educate themselves about both communities in Northern Ireland.
Ignorance may be bliss but it won't build peace.
Tony Kennedy is chief executive of Co-operation Ireland.