Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's statement. I will be very brief because I already had the opportunity to contribute at the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade which the Tánaiste attended and through parliamentary questions, as the Minister of State knows.
I refer to the need to include in our policy the development of an all-Ireland framework. The cross-Border bodies that were established following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 have been successful. I believe their potential has not yet been maximised. Of course there are other areas where we should be developing a framework for new all-Ireland bodies. We need to be fairly vigorous in that respect. In developing an all-Ireland framework, we need to be very conscious of the importance of the message sent out to communities, North and South, where there are major infrastructural projects.
It is very regrettable that the Narrow Water Bridge project has not progressed. Substantial funding was committed by the European Union and there was a shortfall of a few million euro which should have been made up by the Northern Ireland Executive and by the Government here because it is a project that would be very beneficial for the east coast counties of Louth and Down and stretching to the broader region, including into my and Deputy Conlan's constituency, where we need more visitors to the region. In the overall context of public funding, it is a relatively small amount and it would be a shame if that project were lost.
In much more difficult economic and political circumstances, the Government in 1989 was able to progress the restoration of the Ballyconnell-Ballinamore canal, which is now the Shannon-Erne waterway. It involved an investment of £30 million - I cannot remember if it was punts or sterling. At that time in 1989 and 1990 the relationships between North and South and between east and west were far removed from what they are today. The Government at the time was determined to bring that project to fruition, in which it succeeded. It has been a major catalyst for tourism development in Fermanagh, Cavan and Leitrim.
It would send out a strong message to communities on both sides of the Border if the Narrow Water Bridge project was to be advanced and it would cost a relatively small amount of money. I know there are competing demands for public expenditure. However, it is a project where the European funding should not be lost.
The Chairman, other members of the committee and I were in Derry and Donegal last Thursday night and Friday. We heard about the issue of the A5 road from representatives from the northern side of the Border and Donegal. They are very anxious for that project to be advanced.
There are a number of outstanding commitments under the Good Friday Agreement. The policy document, when it is finalised, should send a very strong message about the re-establishment of the civic forum, provided for under the Good Friday Agreement. It is also necessary to bring forward the bill of rights and Acht na Gaeilge. Those are all issues that the community, particularly the Nationalist community, is anxious to have addressed as quickly as possible.
We know there has been substantial progress in the area of policing. There was progress up to the past 13 or 14 months with regard to parades. According to a report in the Irish Newsalmost 200 sensitive parades were permitted last year despite failure to fill out forms correctly. It is not acceptable that the Parades Commission would allow incomplete applications to be processed, finalised and approved. There were only two parades in 2012 where the organisers were not properly identified. In 2013 that had risen to 170. The parades issue did significant damage to the economy of Belfast and beyond particularly around Christmas 2012 and into the early part of 2013. We do not want parades to cause the issues they do for small communities where there is thuggery and intimidation of communities through the misbehaviour of a number of people taking part in those parades which are not properly organised and the organisers take no responsibility for organising them properly.
Under the Haass proposals there are proposals in that regard. I welcome that the Alliance Party, the SDLP and Sinn Féin have all worked hard to try to bring those Haass proposals to a final conclusion. One of the proposals was that there should be no grey area around parading and there must be a code of conduct. In its statements the SDLP has been very strong on the need for a proper code of conduct so that people organising the parades as well as those participating know their responsibilities to the wider community.
Unfortunately, during Question Time last week we did not reach an oral question on immigration reform in the United States. Coming up to St. Patrick's Day, we all want this issue advanced and brought to a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, the utterances from some senior Congressmen in the United States were not as positive over recent months as they have been in the past. I hope Government representatives during their visits to the United States will use every opportunity to hammer home that message again. I know it has been done continually in the past, but it needs to be given the extra impetus.

The enactment of legislation by the Ugandan Government is disgraceful and reprehensible. I do not know if the Minister of State had an opportunity to make a statement on it and I did not get a chance to read any such statement. We cannot penalise the very poor people we are trying to support through Irish Aid initiatives but at the same time a very clear message must go to the Ugandan Government that the action is reprehensible. As a civilised country we must send our message of complete opposition to that very severe legislation, which should be unacceptable in any civilised society.