John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was great to hear from Neil McCann. He probably does not remember it but we met in 1999 at a count centre in Dundalk when I was a young child. It was nice to hear him mention his late father, someone who did tremendous work for business in County Louth. I know we are approaching the ten-year anniversary of his death in the coming months. It is nice to meet Neil again all these years on.

I loved the document that Mr. McCann has outlined. He mentioned how aspirational it is and that it is something we should really be working towards. It is really interesting. I am interested in what would happen after we hopefully have a successful Border poll. Would we have some sort of joint jurisdiction for a number of years while we try to amalgamate a lot of the ideas in the Proposal Initiative or will be going for a totally new state from the beginning? It cannot be the case that Northern Ireland will be joining the South of Ireland - the Republic. This has to be a new state where everything is on the table for negotiation, debate and discussion. What is really good about the document Mr. McCann has outlined today is that it is clear on that point.

I would love to hear more about Mr. McCann's idea about how we would amalgamate our two civil services. It is not until I read it there that it hit me that we have two completely different forms of local government and local authorities on this island in terms of how they work. I would love to get a view about how we can amalgamate our two civil services at some point in the future.