Mr. Adrian McCreesh:

The committee will understand if I stay away from the political side of Brexit and leave that to my colleagues. I wish to make two comments in reply to Deputy McLoughlin and to some of the issues that Deputy Brendan Smith touched on regarding the economic impact, what we can do to shape the economic future and the role European investment can play in that.

I do not want to be negative. I, too, have been involved in developing, acquiring and securing European funding and trying to get it invested in economic regeneration activity through local government, in both an urban and a rural setting. I have been extremely grateful for that opportunity and that experience. It has had a wonderful impact on my part of the world in east Tyrone and south Derry. That being said, there is a big difference between cross-Border activity and Border-specific activity. I want this to be as positive as I can make it but I am going to be critical here. It grates when people talk about cross-Border activity and investment such as INTERREG funds and so on. In 2015, elected members of my local authority and I spent a lot of time preparing a very comprehensive response to the previous INTERREG programme and the forthcoming INTERREG programme running from 2015 to 2019. While we welcomed the investment and the hundreds of millions of pounds that came through the INTERREG programme, we warned the European Commission that in no way, shape or form does it attempt to address urban plight, urban deprivation or urban or rural dilapidation. Innovation and research and development at academic level are wonderful for universities and academic institutions, which have availed fantastically of INTERREG programmes. However, I would make a very simple point. I invite anyone to go to the Border and walk through Newtownbutler, Lisnaskea, Emyvale, Carrick-on-Shannon or Aughnacloy and show me the benefit of the millions of pounds of INTERREG funding. I invite anyone to look at the empty shops, the empty buildings, the dilapidation and the dereliction. There is a raft of work to be done in Border towns and villages, in both urban and rural areas. We are probably only going to get a few chances to get it right in our entire careers. I am here to say that I welcome cross-Border co-operation and I also welcome everything Deputies Brendan Smith and McLoughlin just stated. However, I remind the committee that INTERREG funds going into academic institutions in Belfast do not address rural and urban deprivation, decline and emigration in the multiple Border towns where, quite frankly, communities will say when asked that they saw no discernible benefit.

Our ask is very simple. A regional and spatial strategy is being developed. If we are talking about cross-Border issues, let us make them Border-specific, not exclusively but inclusively. Let us really go into Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Tyrone and Fermanagh. Let us get down and dirty in Border regions and towns and ask what the issues are, what the problems are and what needs to be done to deal with them. If we do that, I might be here with a more positive demeanour in seven years.