A good educational system must have pluralism at its heart, the Minister for Education told a Belfast conference on education yesterday.
Ms Breathnach, who has visited the North several times as Minister, said nurturing and developing a culture of respect and of inclusiveness "is the route that offers real hope that the problems of this island can be resolved.
"Too often we have witnessed the evil harvest of intolerance, of bigotry, of wilful failure to understand one another's concerns, and we must take a shared, democratic approach to resolving them.
Ms Breathnach was addressing a conference on pluralism in education which was jointly by Dublin City University and the University of Ulster.
Ms Breathnach referred to her proposals for civic, social and political education which is to become "an important new element in the post primary syllabus". She said in developing the programme, her Department had been in touch with the Northern Ireland education authorities and developed links with their programme of education for mutual understanding.