Ms Gina McIntyre:

Of course, we are worried about Brexit. We do not take that lightly. The future of the programmes is as I mentioned earlier. There is an opportunity for cross-Border programmes to continue with a non-EU member, but that will come down to political and financial will on the parts of the UK Government, the Irish Government and the EU in discussions that will take place between the UK and the EU as to whether they want to be involved. However, they have alluded to the fact that they would like the opportunity to be involved in those programmes that they choose to get involved in.

That also speaks to the Senator's communications point. It is very important for us to continually communicate when and where we can. We probably speak a lot in Brussels about these programmes. Certainly Northern Ireland is very familiar with these programmes, as is the Irish Government. The Senator is right in saying that people in Dublin and further down in Ireland do not understand about these programmes because it does not impact on their daily lives.

The billions of euro the Senator mentioned have been granted over 18 years. The EU programmes work in cycles of seven years and this current round runs from 2014 to 2020, but activity runs on to the end of 2021 into 2022. We take another year to close things down after that. That is where the €500 million is between INTERREG and PEACE. It is being used now between 2014 and 2020, but we expect to have all of that €500 million committed by the end of this year. There is not an opportunity for people to get involved directly in some of the larger projects. We have some very significant projects, particularly in the area of research and innovation. There is an opportunity as the local action plans are rolled out in each council area over the next couple of months. That is where people will be able to access peace and reconciliation money directly for their areas.