Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I congratulate the Chairman on his appointment as Minister of State.

This is huge for the island of Ireland. I was chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. At our plenary in Dublin two years ago, we visited the Garden of Remembrance and Croke Park. The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly comprises members of the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and many other jurisdictions along with our own Seanad and Dáil. We proposed ourselves that the Rugby World Cup would be located on the island of Ireland. It was agreed unanimously by all members. We wrote to the Taoiseach at the time. I like to believe that was very powerful, and everything helps. I congratulate the Minister on moving this forward. I do not think people fully realise how significant this is, not just for the Republic, but for the island of Ireland. 2023 will be an amazing feat and an incredible amount of work has to be done.

I have a question on one issue which I have been closely involved with. We talked about having the Olympics in this country as well. There is an opportunity, as far as I am aware. The Commonwealth Games were supposed to be in Durban in South Africa in 2022. That has been cancelled and I believe there is a golden opportunity now for the island of Ireland, with the Northern Ireland Executive, to locate the Commonwealth Games in Belfast. As an island, on an all-Ireland basis, we could use all our facilities to accommodate that. I understand that, in the next few months, a decision will be made in the United Kingdom. Maybe the Commonwealth Games will be located in Manchester or Liverpool or such, but I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for the Northern Ireland Executive or Ms Arlene Foster and others to try to locate the games in Belfast. The island of Ireland could work together to locate the Commonwealth Games. I say this because that is in 2022. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity, and the Commonwealth Games are probably bigger than the Rugby World Cup. I ask the Minister to use his offices to liaise with the Northern Ireland Executive to try to locate the Commonwealth Games on the island of Ireland in 2022. We are a strong Republic, but that would be a great way, especially with what is happening today in Northern Ireland, to unite the island of Ireland, which the Rugby World Cup will absolutely do. I think there is another opportunity in 2022. We have facilities here in Croke Park, we have Loch Rynn in Leitrim where there is rowing, and I think it would be a wonderful opportunity.