Ms Órfhlaith Begley:

I welcome everyone, it is a pleasure to have them before the committee. Now more than ever it is crucial, as Mr. Campbell alluded, with the challenges facing the Border region, not least Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, that we need better North-South, cross-Border co-operation. I commend the work that ICBAN has been doing. Unfortunately, many challenges remain in the central Border region, particularly infrastructure and connectivity. I represent the constituency of West Tyrone and have been a champion of the delivery of the A5 western transport corridor. My colleague, Councillor Doherty, also knows its importance, not only for the north-west region but the entire island. It can unlock the economic potential of the region as a whole. I commend the cross-council committee that has been established to press for the delivery of the N2-A5 western transport corridor.

ICBAN recently had an engagement with the shared island unit. I welcome that the A5 is one of the key cross-Border projects in the shared island unit. I wanted to get a sense from ICBAN of that engagement and what the requests were. One thing I have sought on this is that the Irish Government would uplift its contribution.

What were the requests, or what was the engagement, in regard to that? One of my requests in the context of this project is that the Irish Government uplift its contribution in respect of the A5 in order that it will co-fund the project to the current contribution it has made to the A5. How has the shared island unit been beneficial in pressing for cross-Border projects?

Remote working hubs are an initiative I have been driving in my constituency. A digital hubs project in Omagh is ready to go and could act as a catalyst, particularly for rural villages and towns, by bringing people back into them, and Omagh is a perfect example of that. Has there been an approach in regard to developing a network of remote digital hubs and what is the status of that?