Ms Lisa O'Kane:

I am conscious of the time. We heard today and we hear everywhere we go about the real desire to maintain cross-Border collaboration. We now need the full commitment from the Governments and the EU. There is a history, tradition and spirit of co-operation but a sticking plaster approach has been taken. In the main, the co-operation has been driven by funding. With the emergence of city deals in most of the councils in the North of Ireland and the very clear cross-Border links with the regional, spatial and economic strategies the regional assemblies are driving, somebody needs to take a step back and to say that if we work together at this level and put in funding from the Governments on both sides of the Border there could be better complementarity that would address many of the infrastructural issues that have been raised by Mr. Aidan Campbell and some members this morning. The economic hinterlands of all of the councils in Northern Ireland extend across the Border and we all have shared objectives on economic growth. There needs to be something at that level and the co-operation needs to be mainstreamed. It cannot just be piecemeal.