Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been a very interesting debate and it has been good to hear the comments. Senator Cullinane touched on the point I was going to make when he referred to the possibility of Britain leaving the European Union. It would have such a major impact on us that it is very difficult for us to talk about the rest of the issues when that elephant in the room is hanging over us. It is perhaps only two years away and, hopefully, we will get through that. I will cover some questions.

I was impressed by Mr. Burke discussing agriculture versus food processing. The future is in food processing, which is more important than agriculture. There should be two different Ministers, one to cover agriculture and another for food processing. If a food processor states the best ingredients it can source for a product are not Irish made but will come from elsewhere and it will create jobs, that cannot be done if the same Ministry deals with food and agriculture. It is not a popular thing to say but it seems that is one of the areas we can address.

Mr. White's contribution was interesting, in particular the importance of the Dublin-Derry road. What do we have to do to get that off the ground? What went wrong? He said he does not know what went wrong, other than the fact the money we had allocated was not provided in the end. We do not hear a word about the project. It is an area about which we have to do something.

I refer to InterTradeIreland. What would Mr. Gough like to see happen? Is there anything we, the Northern Government or the British Government can do that will address what he wants? Could one button be pressed to achieve that? It seems that it is something we have to achieve.

From the point of view of Dr. Soares, what are the barriers to the Border development corridor? What is slowing down the process and stopping it from getting as far as it should?

I remember shopping for a wedding present with somebody from Limerick. When I suggested we buy Irish linen made in County Antrim, she asked, "Should we not support our own?". It seems the further one goes from the Border, the more partitionist one becomes. My father came from County Down and my mother from County Armagh. It never dawned on me not to regard County Antrim as part of my country but some people from Kerry and Cork do not seem to do so. What do we have to do, from the customer point of view, to get customers to be loyal to an all-Ireland economy rather than just being loyal to the part of Ireland they think they pay their taxes in and, therefore, recognise?