Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am particularly impressed by the visitors who have travelled with the witnesses today. It shows the importance of collegiality and of people having a voice. In my time in this House this is the biggest delegation to come into the Gallery. I reassure them that this will not be the end of our engagement; the secretariat, in the planning programme, will note that we intend to have an outreach visit to the central Border region shortly. I cannot indicate exactly when that engagement will occur - Brexit is taking precedence at the moment - but we are in the process of planning that visit. We hope to spend much more time with the witnesses and to see the issues first hand, in the same way that European parliamentarians visited the Border region to find out how the Border operates, as Senator Craughwell and Deputy Brendan Smith pointed out. I can assure the witnesses of that, as someone who has worked in and lived around the Border.

If one were to close one's eyes when meeting a group and if one did not know who the group were, what their faith was or what region they came from, one would see the problems are the same whether in the north west, ICBAN or the north east. It is a question of identifying issues and working collaboratively; that collegiality was referred to by many here today. Mr. Baird spoke about Ulster Scots; I developed Ulster Scots in Dundalk. I thank the witnesses for their time today.

We will suspend briefly before our next guests come in.