Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Pat Colgan and the members for their input. A few innovative and creative suggestions have been put forward. It is an important topic, especially for this committee which is focused on the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and relations between the North and South. Obviously, the programme is very much Border related, but there can be a good bit of creative thinking around bringing people together.

I acknowledge the work of Pat Colgan, Shaun Henry, John McCandless and their team. They have been working continuously and earnestly to make a better Northern Ireland. I am more acutely aware of the positive benefits of the Special EU Programmes Body to County Donegal and the Border region, but the impact of its work is - I hesitate to use the word "legacy" because every time that word is used in the Northern Ireland context it is seen in a negative vain - leaving a legacy. The body deals with a lot of pain and hurt in Northern Ireland and it is important that we always remember that when we are having conversations about trying to understand what people have come through over the past decades and how that is still the reality.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin pointed out the wider realities, that there are still sectarian challenges and that a lot of walls - I mean that in a mental rather than a physical sense - need to come down. The work of the body is more than symbolic and more than significant. I was delighted to be part of the opening ceremony of the peace bridge in Derry and to have the First Minister standing alongside the deputy First Minister. If an assessment had been carried out on which figure had made the bigger impact, the measurement would show that the First Minister made a massive impact in Derry. I hope I am allowed to say this in public because this is what he said on the day - but he even referenced the town as "Derry". There was a tremendous generosity of spirit. Equally, when Martin McGuinness, the deputy First Minister, was at the opening of the Skainos Centre in east Belfast, if one carried out an impact measurement it would show that he certainly made his presence felt and he went down very well.

There is a lot of work to do, but the work of the body is a cornerstone not only to the future understanding of what led to the impasse in Northern Ireland over a period of 30 years but to the future of Northern Ireland. We as a committee are looking to the future and anything that we can do to pull people together. Funding of €150 million was mentioned and Deputy Ó Snodaigh mentioned €30 million. Money sometimes gets the attention of politicians, but this committee is in the business of reconciliation. The carrot and the stick are always there but, if we can be progressive and creative in our thinking in bringing people together, whether that is young people in east or west Belfast, inner city Dublin or in the Border area, we may be able to make their lives better.

I look forward to our ongoing engagement.