Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms O’Donoghue and Mr. Duffy are very welcome. It is always great to listen to all the great work that they do in the shared island unit. I personally want to applaud and note the huge effort that they have gone to to get Narrow Water Bridge to this point. As Mr. Brady said earlier, it will change the dynamics of the entire area of north Louth, south Down and south Armagh. I have such ambition to be able to do a loop of the lough, to start at Greenore, get the ferry and come back around and back home to the Cooley Mountains. There so much potential and so much to look forward to on that.

Deputy Brendan Smith mentioned my love for DkIT and the importance of having a cross-Border emphasis on DkIT. We should emphasise development in the northeast as well as in the northwest. It is hugely important. The witnesses will probably know that DkIT is the only institute of technology that is not matched up with a partner to work towards technological university status. There are opportunities in not having DkIT paired for the purposes of university status.

Following on from what Deputy Brendan Smith was saying, the Border counties, North and South, have been disadvantaged. We all know the reasons why. It is because of that Border. I would be a big fan of a Border economic zone that would make sure that there is that crossover including all those county councils and the four organisations with which the shared island unit works. It could be created in the same vein as the Eastern and Midlands Regional Assembly, EMRA, which follows a European model for a committee of regions. Those feed into national policy.

I am curious about the shared island unit's incredible amount of work on the dialogue series. It is really positive. What comes next from the body of work that the shared island unit has created and found out in those shared dialogues? An incredible amount of knowledge must have been gathered. Where do we go from there, after the dialogue? The dialogues are worthwhile and enjoyable.