Mr. Gerard Diver:

I am delighted to be here today as chairperson of the ERNACT network. We appreciate the opportunity to address the committee. The work the committee is doing is very important and it has obviously cast the net wide in terms of the matters on which it wishes to be briefed.

I have been on the ERNACT network for only a couple of years but the network has been in existence for over 20 years. It was initiated by the two neighbouring councils on the north west of the island, Derry City Council and Donegal County Council. They were quite prescient 21 years ago. The network was founded to look at communications, particularly through information communications technology, ICT, and the application of ICT. We all know what has happened over the last 20 years. I do not think the Internet existed 21 years ago, so it was far-seeing to create the network.

It was obviously prompted in part by our physical location. The local authorities are based on the north west of the island, which is on the north west of Europe, so that is a big challenge in terms of our peripherality and the links and relationships we have with places outside our region. The network has worked very successfully over those 20 years and has received a great deal of co-operation from other regions and municipalities across the European Union. You will be aware of that, Chairman, as you were directly involved in the network. It has successfully accessed funding for ICT projects, to develop models of good practice and for different projects that are able to help member states of the EU work together collaboratively on a better footing on the ICT agenda. We recently returned from a trip to Atlantic Canada, so ERNACT is now looking outside the European Union in terms of its remit through our relationship with our friends across the Atlantic. That is a very exciting development for the work we will be doing. As somebody who is a fairly recent addition to the network, it appears to me that part of the difficulty we have had is that we have hidden our light under a bushel with regard to the achievements and the work done over the past 20 years.

At this stage I will hand over to Colm McColgan to make the presentation and give an insight into the work that ERNACT has done and plans to do in the future. I thank the committee for listening to us today.