Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his remarks. We play rugby on an all-island basis. A total of 70% of people born on the island of Ireland who reside overseas reside in Commonwealth countries. Deep down, we have this instinct that it is not us but from a legal, educational and political perspective, these people are the same. We are talking about 2.4 billion people. We have this reluctance, which should not exist. We have come an awful long way. I agree with the Minister concerning the cross-border bid by the IFA and FAI to host the 2023 European Championships. It is groundbreaking and sends out a signal that on the island of Ireland, what the Department has been doing all along with things like the sports campus is groundbreaking. What happened last Sunday on the island of Ireland, tens of thousands people in places like Sligo, Dublin, Enniskillen or my home town of Boyle went out and rightly remembered the 200,000 Irish men who served in World War One. We have come of age and are in a much better space from a historical perspective. It was under a Fine Gael Government and a Fine Gael Taoiseach, John A. Costello, that we left the Commonwealth in 1949, possibly on a spat because we felt insulted by the Canadian High Commissioner. There is an awful lot to be gained from sporting links in particular in respect of an issue about which, deep down, we do not talk. I am sorry for going into that but I thank the Minister for his words.