Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the opportunity to discuss Northern Ireland here this evening. It is very important that we discuss Northern Ireland, but a person I spoke to earlier made the point that we rarely discuss the counties around Northern Ireland and the three other counties of Ulster, which have been more affected than any other part of the country by the legacy of the Troubles in the North over the years and by the difficulties we still experience in terms of trying to ensure further integration of our services and co-operation between Northern Ireland and our Government.

No county has been affected more by the Border and the fact that we are two separate jurisdictions than my county of Donegal. I welcome the fact that we are here discussing the issues in a scenario where there is no longer the type of conflict we saw over so many years. There has been much progress. The Good Friday Agreement was an historic agreement and many did not think we would see the scenario we have lived through over the past ten to 15 years. However, there has not been the level of progress in recent years that we would all like to have seen. We need to ensure the institutions within the Six Counties and between Northern Ireland and the Republic continue to be developed further.

The recent Haass talks offered an opportunity to deal with some of the outstanding issues and it is unfortunate that they did not lead to agreement across all parties. Unfortunately, many people are still looking over their shoulders rather than ahead to what is possible. The pace of political progress continues to be slow. There was much that was positive in the Haass proposals and I hope the parties, perhaps after the upcoming elections, can get together again to develop them and, hopefully, reach agreement. I urge the Tánaiste and the Government to work closely with the British Government and to do their bit in terms of being involved in this effort.

Overall, there has been more of a hands-off approach than we should have seen from the Government, particularly since the current Government took office. I make this comment in the context of some of the projects on which we should be seeing some progress. Three years ago, the A5 project, the dual carriageway from Derry to Aughnacloy, had political and co-funding commitment from the Government. It was a bad day for the north west and Northern Ireland when the Government rowed back on that. I know there have been problems in regard to planning and that this has led to difficulties. The actions of our Government in terms of re-quantifying its commitment to the project was not a good move in the context of trying to make progress. In regard to the current position of the project, the Government has given a commitment of €25 million in 2015 and the same the following year. However, we need to see more active participation by the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive on the project. They must work alongside each other. Since the Government's commitment has been re-quantified, the project has been very much left to Northern Ireland to drive it. This project is critical to the future infrastructural development of the north west, but because the St. Andrews Agreement did not come until later on in our economic development and just a couple of years before the economy turned, the agreement between the Six Counties and the Republic to work alongside one another to develop it came too late to avail of the funds that had been in place. Unfortunately, the economic recession in the North and South has made progress more difficult.

Another project I would like to bring to the attention of the Tánaiste is the Foyle ferry, from Greencastle to Magilligan, which has been up and running for almost ten years and has transported more than 1 million people across the two-mile strait. This service is currently in significant difficulty and a group met the Minister for Transport last week on the issue. The service was funded by Limavady Council and Donegal County Council, but they are no longer in a position to continue with the funding as they were doing. Without some kind of co-operation between the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government, the future of this cross-Border project is in question. I urge the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport to make every effort possible to get together and liaise at North-South level to find a solution to allow this important service to continue.

My party leader referred to the issue of support for Protestant schools and minority faith schools in his contribution to this debate earlier. Because of the introduction by the Minister for Education and Skills of increased pupil thresholds for the maintenance of teacher numbers, significant pressure is being put on many Protestant schools. We have seen, for example, the pupil threshold for a three-teacher school move from 49 pupils required to maintain three teachers to 56 for next year. Approximately half of all Protestant schools have fewer than 50 pupils and they are suffering a disproportionate impact due to this measure. Just as it is important to respect the traditions of all cultures and backgrounds in the Six Counties, we should do the same here. I ask the Tánaiste to reflect on that and on the impact of the changed pupil thresholds on Protestant schools.

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