Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and add my voice to the compliments paid to him and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, as well as all the parties involved in the talks. The Minister of State mentioned he was close to agreement on a number of issues, in particular the issues surrounding the historical investigation unit and the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval. Will the Minister of State provide us with more information in that regard?

The Minister of State spoke about many of the infrastructure issues we often raise during these meetings, including the A5 motorway, the Narrow Water bridge, the Ulster Canal and the Dublin-Belfast rail corridor. A lot of figures were mentioned in the Minister of State's comprehensive statement. The figure of €75 million was mentioned in respect of the A5 motorway and the figure of €110 million was mentioned when speaking about releasing the economic potential of the region.

Given our recent weather, was the Minister of State referring to ongoing flood relief or something more specific since the recent heavy rains in, in particular, the north west and the west? The Minister of State's county of Cork has also been very much affected. There is room for co-operation in terms of what we can do on flood relief.

In view of the White Paper on energy, is there any information available in terms of cross-Border initiatives?

I apologise that I have to leave as I will be chairing proceedings in the Dáil at 12 noon.