Mr. David Maxwell:

I will come in as a Border unionist councillor and answer the Senator's question about the connection with unionists in the North. ICBAN has representation from all parties and none, so the DUP, the Ulster Unionists and everybody else are represented. In all my years on ICBAN we have never had a falling out; all the decisions are arrived at by consensus. We might have our disagreements but we arrive at a consensus opinion. As for the chair and the vice chair, the unionist parties and the nationalist parties both have to get the chance to chair; there has to be a North-South split. Mr. McNeill is the chair this year. I am the vice chair from the South, representing Fine Gael. Last year Fianna Fáil and, I think, Sinn Féin were in the chairs. The positions are continuously given out on an all-party basis so everyone feels included. This is what I like about the ICBAN model. We all work together, we have representation from all parties and we talk monthly.

We are working together and that needs to continue, especially given how things are going. It works well. No one or two parties hog it all; it is evenly split among both traditions and all parties.