Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions this morning. I am very conscious in particular of the work of ICBAN in my region in Leitrim where cross-Border work has been taking place for many years. It has had a huge impact and been very positive for many communities and various sectors, including for local authorities, health services and all of those areas which have benefitted. I think of this from the perspective of the Border region which I know so well. In Pettigo half of premises are boarded up. I go right around from there to Kiltyclogher and Swanlinbar. If one drove through Swanlinbar this morning, one would see that there is not much in it. It is the same if one crosses the Border and goes to Kinawley. There is not much there either. The Border was drawn along county boundaries, which in a lot of cases meant simply a ditch or a drain somewhere. It is not a natural border such as one finds between two countries like the massive river between France and Germany or a mountain range somewhere else. It is a very unnatural border. The natural thing to happen is to have it all the one. For that reason, there has been a particular impact on the communities that live there.

The real problem is the sense of stagnation which Brexit has deepened. Stagnation has been present in many parts of rural Ireland on both sides of the Border for many years, but it has been particularly the case in the Border region. People who want to take risks and have an idea they want to bring forward face and have faced for the past number of years a lack of support from the traditional providers of finance like banks while the Government has, because of Brexit, backed away considerably. They come to people like the witnesses but whatever help they can provide has, again, been smothered by Brexit. That is the reality. We have to overcome that sense of stagnation. How do we move that forward? How do we change that mindset? While the funding which has come through the years has been very welcome and made a huge difference, it has never been enough. I take Mr. Campbell's point about a sticking plaster. It has been always just enough to manage. Every couple of months some project was rolled out and the idea was that it looked good. To make a seismic shift and to change gear requires a major investment and major ideas and a total change as to where we are at.

Until Brexit is sorted out, we will not be in a position to resolve that. That is the reality. Let us be honest here. Brexit has totally destroyed the potential that was there. The fact that the assembly in the North is not operating is certainly a huge problem. There is no point denying or hiding from that. It has to be sorted out. However, both Governments, which are guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement from which all of this flows, have a responsibility to do what it takes to make that seismic shift and to change gear. Brexit really sharpens the mind and focus as to where the problems are and what needs to be done. We need some plan with a budget to say what will happen over five years, not 40 years, for these communities. Four out of five young people in places like Swanlinbar and Kinawley on both sides of the Border have had to emigrate for the past 50 years. That has been the answer to their problems and it will continue to be unless we change things.

I welcome the witnesses again and I acknowledge the presentation they intend to make later. I do not have any questions for them really. It is important on the day that is in it, given what is happening internationally, that we are here to look at the part of the world and the communities which will be most impacted by Brexit. We must send a strong message from the committee that both Governments must step up to the mark with solutions. I am guilty of it myself, but we are all talking about the problem. Finding the solutions is difficult but we have to engage to make it happen.