As we mark the beginning of Good Relations Week 2024, I make the case for including a mission on "Peace" and peacebuilding in the Executive's Programme for Government (PFG). Like many in the Chamber, I welcomed last week's launch of the draft Programme for Government for consultation. My party's Ministers have been working hard around the Executive table to progress the PFG. Alliance wanted to see "Peace" and peacebuilding as a separate mission in the PFG from the outset. We proceeded on the basis that it would be included as a cross-cutting theme, with the option of a dedicated mission on "Peace" forming a specific part of the public consultation. I hope that Members will agree that the case for its inclusion could not be clearer. Without embedding reconciliation, diversity, equality and inclusion in everything that we do, we cannot achieve so many of the priorities and ambitions that are set out in the document.

To begin with, the draft PFG includes ambitious proposals for growing a globally competitive economy in Northern Ireland, but we know that civil unrest, paramilitarism and political upheaval are major barriers to economic growth. Time and again, research has shown that political stability is a driver of foreign direct investment and the shared prosperity and job creation that come with it. We will never build the thriving economy that we want in an environment that is defined by stop-start government and political chaos.

Elsewhere, the draft PFG, rightly, targets the long-overdue transformation of Northern Ireland's public services, but we have to acknowledge that that is not possible without tackling the cost of the division that remains so deeply embedded across our society. The duplication and segregation of the likes of health services, housing and schools mean that those services cost a fortune to maintain. That is a fortune that the Executive can ill afford, the spending of which robs those services of desperately needed funding and investment. That also stops us from creating the high-quality, integrated and inclusive public services for which our constituents have been crying out for so long.

Whether it is growing the economy, creating safer communities, improving public services, tackling poverty or supporting the vulnerable, none of the PFG goals will become a reality without "Peace" and peacebuilding being at the heart of the Executive's agenda. Alliance will continue to make the case for that vital mission in the time ahead, and I hope that other parties will support us in our effort.

I call Diane Dodds. You have two minutes, Mrs Dodds.