Mr. David Maxwell:

This is my first time speaking. I thank Deputies, Senators and the Chair for allowing us to have this meeting. On a general note about ICBAN's work on greenways, blueways, the Ulster Canal, the N2, the A5, Farm to Fork, business and education, ICBAN is the lowest tier of our elected government. It comprises local councillors on both sides of the Border meeting monthly. We have representatives from all political parties and none on the board. Many MPs, Deputies and Senators have asked what ICBAN is doing in a range of areas. Our problem is funding. We are operating with local council contributions. With the FRP, ICBAN is looking to develop projects and to bring them up to another level to get them working for the benefit of people in the central Border area. As a number of people have said, the central Border area is probably the poor relation to many areas. Deputy Brendan Smith alluded to it at the start. There is the Dublin to Belfast corridor, with Dundalk and Drogheda, while in the north west, there is the Derry to Letterkenny corridor, which has a bit of help. We have nothing in the central Border.

We have met the shared island unit. We hope that it can ask ICBAN to develop projects. We could work them up to a stage where they can be brought forward. If any Deputy, Senator, MP or MLA can help us to do that, that is what we are there for.

We are local councillors. We are meeting and, with the events happening North and South at the moment, it is critical we have as much contact as possible across the Border to work those projects up. There are numerous projects. Mr. Eastwood and Mr. Brady referred to taxation for cross-Border workers. As a councillor based in Monaghan, I note the number of Northern workers coming to Monaghan to work and going home in the evening as well as workers leaving Monaghan. This is happening along the Border. We hear about the big-ticket items with Brexit but for the ordinary working person crossing the Border every day, it is about their livelihoods. How can we in the central Border region make their lives better by working up all these projects? ICBAN can only do so much. Its membership would like to do more but it is down to the funding we would need. The council contributions keep us ticking over and we are trying to pick a number of projects we can work up within our budgets. There are other projects we could work up to the next phase if we had the funding. I put the call out to any MPs, MLAs, Deputies and Senators to do anything they can to help. We are here to work to make life better for our constituents, North and South, in the central Border region.