Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the shared island officials before the committee today. This is a wonderful time given the opportunities this new shared island could afford us. It is an exciting time in politics. I believe it leaves many people across the island with an air of anticipation. It is also a worrying time during the pandemic.

My thanks to Ms O'Donoghue for the presentation. The funding is welcome. I noticed in some other presentations that reference was made to speed rail. Some of the presentation from Ms O'Donoghue focused on the north west, which I was pleased to hear, and the Border. Does Ms O'Donoghue have any awareness of the thinking on speed rail? Two of the largest cities in the country are Derry and Belfast. There is a major opportunity to connect them with Dublin via speed rail. It would help the region as a whole and it would not be a major stretch to connect the town of Letterkenny in Donegal to that as well. This is something I want to throw out so that the officials have it in the back of their minds. The A5 is progressing as we know and I am delighted to see it.

I have mentioned several times at this committee, including to the Minister for Foreign Affairs when we had him in, the question of the make-up of this committee. Not all parties are around the table. It is really important that the Department of the Taoiseach and the Taoiseach work in conjunction with our Chairman and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to get all political parties in Northern Ireland around the table of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. It is imperative that we all work on this. We are all stakeholders in the Good Friday Agreement. It is imperative that all are brought on board. All Departments need to work together. People need to sit down and negotiate to see what the hurdles are and to do our best to work on them. That is the strongest message I will leave with the committee today.