Mrs. Sharon McMahon:

I thank Ms McCallion for her kind comments. They are much appreciated. The Foyle Maritime Festival is a huge success on the Foyle and it has gone from strength to strength over the years. The agency plays a big role in that festival. We provide what we see as the marine tourism aspect of the festival so we provided all the activities Ms McCallion saw on the water this year, such as stand-up paddle boarding and canoeing. We ran various competitions and we sponsored the open water swimming challenge. We have been very active and we secured the funding that now allows the clipper round-the-world yacht race to moor in Derry for the period of the festival, which is absolutely amazing.

Ms McCallion mentioned our legislative change. We are not naive and we know there are challenges in the future post Brexit, but we are trying to get people to understand that the 1952 Act is unique. We are able to add to that legislation and change it as required. We work with the Attorney General in the South and the Departmental Solicitor's Office in the North. We amend our legislation. We complete a regulatory review each year which goes before both of those institutions and they give us advice and guide us. Our legislation has been working for over 60 years and we do not foresee that changing. The legislation allows us to carry out our daily operations. Yes, we have concerns about the EU environmental directives. However, we have had conversations and we are looking at how we can be involved. We hope the Departments in the North and South would see us as a vehicle to implement whatever changes are required in the Border regions and would use our expertise and knowledge.

Our legislation is quite unique and I encourage members to have a quick look at what we can and cannot do. Prosecuting by domicile is unique and that will continue. It will not change. We are content that the legislation will continue. We have had conversations with both sponsor Departments and we are constantly asked to update reports on day one planning and what will happen on 1 April 2019. We have done that both North and South and we continue to update it. We are unique and have our own set of laws which we update annually.