Dr. Anthony Soares:

In response to Senator Quinn's question regarding barriers to support of the Border development corridor, Mr. Padraic White has already addressed one of those which is not a barrier. The impetus has to be there from the local authorities, and local government reform on the Northern side has slowed things down slightly. On the issue of a higher policy level in terms of the two jurisdictions coming from both sides, I will give the committee an example of what was perhaps a missed opportunity which would have given an impetus to the Border development corridor. The European Commission designed not different programmes or a different set of funds but something called integrated territorial investment. The Commission recommended to both the Irish and UK Governments - this would affect specifically Northern Ireland - that they draw pots of money from whatever fund, the European Social Fund or the European Territorial Co-operation Fund, and put them together to strategically address one particular territory that they agree needs development. Both Governments could draw down all sorts of funds and combine them with their own central funds to strategically address something in the territory. We promoted this idea that integrated territorial mechanism was a tool that should have been used in this new EU funding period, but that potential tool was not used. That was a missed opportunity which would have given impetus to the Border development corridor.