Mr. John James O'Hara:

The one thing that is missing from this argument is real people. We come from rural Leitrim, a beautiful place. It has always been involved in different conflicts. In my house a man was hanged for treason because he had taken in people who were part of the Spanish Armada. There is the home place of Seán MacDermott and the Border along which roads were blown up. There are 277 Border crossings. This is the real thing. Having talked to farmers, if there is a hard border, a real farmer will have to travel 11 miles to get to another part of his or her farm. There are houses that straddle both sides of the Border.

Tourism Ireland is a good example to use to showcase the benefits of an all-island economy. Special status is the only way to go to solve the problems I see. There is a simple but important point. If an American tourist has a visa to enter the European Union, will he or she look for a second to cross the Border?

In July last year the car hire companies came together and added an extra €40 to the cost of car hire to travel across the Border into the North of Ireland. That is fact. They are looking at taking the money now. That is an extra cost to the tourist to Ireland.

Senator Frances Black is doing brilliant work. From a tourism point of view, she is right: having a hard border would make a major difference. We are developing an all-island network and will give the details to the Seanad. It is called Irish.networkand is a 32-county network. It is about business and community regeneration. Given what we see happening on the ground, it has to come from the people up. It does not matter where we stand in political or communiy terms. That is why Border communities are working well together. We meet Deputies from different parties and are trying to bring the project along on an all-island, all-party basis and it is working. Listening to us, special status would be major, but the Border needs to be extended to the Irish Sea. That is the only way forward.