A peace process for real and lasting peace must be supported by everyone. But the absence of armed violence alone does not determine the validity of any peace process. A peace process must have much more.

Peace must mean progress on, for example, social issues such as housing, health, education and work. And we know that even after 20 years of ‘a peace process’ we have made very little progress –reverses in fact – on any of these issues. And the statistics are out there to prove it.

And yet millions on top of millions is spent on security issues – in particular on the massive security apparatus of the MI5 base in Holywood in Co Down. The money spent on informers, spying and surveillance is astronomical for such a tiny area, as the north is. Actual armed actions are minuscule compared to the violence in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Can the actual expenditure on this security apparatus be made public? But more to the point why was it put there as part of a so-called Peace Process in the first instance? This base and all that goes with it, needs to be closed immediately.

Yet the PSNI are being foisted on the Catholic/nationalist communities as being a benign, ‘friendly bobby’, community police force. Nationalists are being told to join up. This is being encouraged by the biggest nationalist political party Sinn Féin, among others and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

As a part of this ‘PSNI normalisation’ they are being brought into schools to talk to children and they are fully armed. This has happened recently in the Rainbow After School Club in Roslea. It has also been happening in the schools in Lisnaskea. No armed groups in military dress should be allowed into our schools. This is unacceptable. Parents are concerned about this and I would advise them to sit down and discuss ways of avoiding this type of thing happening again. But we want peace and we need peace but we cannot accept a ‘peace process’ run and managed by the secret agents of MI5. It cannot be left to the British government alone to control policing in the six counties.

We need an open debate on policing to include everyone in our communities. The Dublin government must also be a part of this process.

The benefits of the closing of the MI5 base in Holywood would free up billions to improve our creaking health service, our schools and the lack of proper services for the ordinary people on the ground.

Only then can I accept and support a new process for peace and a police force with an International dimension.

Cllr JOHN McCLUSKEY

Independent, Roslea, Co Fermanagh

We need politicians who devise solutions instead of endlessly reciting problems

Newton Emerson (March 5) rightly points out that the asymmetrical Brexit withdrawal agreement places Northern Ireland in a position to benefit exponentially if we take advantage of legal loopholes and political quirkiness.

And right again to point out that if we are seen to be too successful in doing so then either the EU or UK, or both, will likely act to curtail our activities.

There are at least two observations to make in this regard.

Firstly, the small number of indigenous companies already established and registered in Northern Ireland can be efficiently and effectively monitored and legislated for to rein in or curtail any harmful activity.

The danger arises where there is a large influx of companies to Northern Ireland specifically to take advantage of these anomalies and their cumulative actions cause damage to the economies of the UK or EU. Stormont could take pre-emptive action to restrict new company formation in Northern Ireland, which would help prevent this abuse.

Secondly, this Brexit crisis or cliff edge has been ever-present for more than three years now and the much-heralded digital solution proposed by unionist politicians has yet to materialise.

And, it’s worth bearing in mind that this much-debated border down the Irish Sea actually encircles Great Britain and affects all GB-EU trade.

In contrast, two months after the outbreak of Covid-19, Randox Laboratories have already developed an effective test for shipping.

We have an abundance of IT and Software Development companies in Northern Ireland and our two universities excel in this research.

If they can’t be bothered to develop a potentially very lucrative piece of software for hauliers and exporters to use then why doesn’t Stormont put up an X-prize of £31m for the first effective software solution?

What we really need are politicians who devise solutions instead of endlessly reciting the problems.

And lastly, it may be that the legal eagles in the DUP have spotted their own potentially lucrative solutions.

BERNARD J MULHOLLAND

Belfast BT9

Protect construction workers from RCS

For construction workers in Northern Ireland and across the UK, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health is calling on the government to take action and prevent the ‘next asbestos’ from taking more lives in Northern Ireland and the UK.

It’s estimated that 600,000 workers across are exposed to RCS – the dust created by cutting or fracturing brick and stone – which causes silicosis, the most common chronic occupational lung disease in the world.

Our recent joint parliamentary inquiry heard expert evidence that workplace exposure limits for RCS are too high. There are difficulties in diagnosis due to pressure on GPs’ time and problems accessing expert specialists and there is a widespread lack of understanding and awareness among construction workers and employers of the risks around RCS.

We’re calling on the government to take a number of crucial steps to address these issues and protect construction workers in Northern Ireland and the UK from what could develop into a future occupational health epidemic.

JIM SHANNON MP

DUP, Strangford, Co Down,

and chair All-Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health

Practical solution to containing virus

As the news headlines are dominated with concerns over the spread of the Coronavirus or Covid 19 I have some particular concerns and recently wrote to the Minister for Health Robin Swann MLA to express them. In our communities we have a lot of people both young and old who are cared in the home with the great work of our nurses in Domiciliary Care. While I have nothing but respect for the invaluable work they do I think local government could help make their working environment a safer place for both nurse and patient with a very simple idea.

In our hospitals when visiting our loved ones or friends there are hand sanitisers mounted on the wall at the entrance to these wards and indeed across the hospital sites. Could government not mount these sanitisers for the sick in our community just inside the front door of their homes ?

With this simple action all who enter the home of people who are in very poor health it could hopefully give them an extra layer of protection from any infection in particular the coronavirus. Surely government should at least explore this idea tendering it out to see how viable it may be. It could help reduce the burden on an already over-burdened health service which sadly may find itself on the front line even more than they are to contain this virus.

KIERAN McCAUSLAND

The Workers’ Party, Belfast