James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Ahern and thank him for his presentation. Obviously, we are all very appreciative of his attendance here because he has particular knowledge nationally, internationally and locally and has highlighted many of the practical local issues people will face on a day-to-day basis. These issues must be dealt with. One thing nobody wants to see return to the Border area is smuggling and criminality. How might this dealt with? I am not putting Mr. Ahern on the spot but does he have ideas about how this could be dealt with?

I am also interested in the fact that Mr. Ahern mentioned many other areas like tourism and health. Health is in the news this week with the announcement that funding for the new national paediatric hospital has received the go-ahead by the Government. It was very important to me and, I am sure, to others like Mr. Ahern that we had representation from Northern Ireland on both the development board and the board itself so that it would be an all-Ireland hospital. How does Mr. Ahern feel it might impact on that?

Mr. Ahern alluded to pension rights and social welfare rights. The arrangements we have historically with the UK ensure that its citizens who fall ill here and need to see their GP are covered under our medical card scheme and vice versa. Obviously, this will need to be addressed and looked at.

I think Senator Paul Daly mentioned giving more to the UK during the negotiations and whether the EU have done that. I come at it from the other side and, following Mr. John Bruton's contribution, wonder whether the UK will come to take a different view as the realisation dawns of the full impact of this decision to leave with all the consequences for the day-to-day lives of people in Northern Ireland and Great Britain, as well as the complications for business, employment and their exchange rate. What is Mr. Ahern's view on this?

I will finish on a positive note because although it is important that we highlight all the problems and challenges, we also need to look for all the opportunities. In the context of his local knowledge of the Border area and international experience, could Mr. Ahern tell us where opportunities we can exploit might lie?

In respect of North-South co-operation and the Good Friday Agreement, I agree with Mr. Ahern that there are huge opportunities for those British-Irish Council ministerial meetings to explore and deal with many of the problems. I welcome his idea that we should have an interactive website so that the ordinary man and woman on the street can highlight the issues as they see them and reduce the number of unknown unknowns. This is a very good idea that should be taken on board.