Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the event that took place at the Narrow Water Bridge. As it happens, I was out of the country on that day. I could not have been there anyway. It is important that elected representatives from Louth and constituencies north of the Border are included in functions. Some of them are members of this committee. I want to stress I was not around on that particular day. It is important to be more inclusive. Part of the problem we have is that politicians on either side of the Border do not meet often enough. People do not know their politicians or think they are different from what they actually are. The more we normalise relationships, the better. The shared island unit will be very welcomed by the committee, to go back to the point I made at the beginning of the meeting on inclusiveness and involvement. This is key.