Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is very welcome, as are Ms O'Donoghue and Mr. Duffy. Their time is precious and it is brilliant to have them here. I have said on many occasions that the shared island unit has been the single most progressive move on the island of Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement. It is a step change in how we look to the future as we try to build this island and its people to be stronger, better and more prosperous. The whole ethos is about bringing our jurisdictions together because keeping them apart is no good without the people in the island coming together. The shared island approach is pragmatic, practical and makes common sense.

Some people talk about making a plan for the future and creating a pathway. One can either choose to accept or ignore that. I choose to look to the facts. I see the acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the Taoiseach's office and of all the incredible work he and his officials are doing with respect to the research.

This morning I pointed to the research published by the ESRI on education and training systems. My question comes from that. We have research. We have the dialogue series and we have the projects. I believe that will create the blueprint to create the future that we want. In life, very few things are certain. However, it is certain that we are stuck together. This island is one island no matter what our constitutional status is. We must look to the fact of that. This shared island is the blueprint for the next 100 years, the next ten years, the next five years with all this on-the-ground work and all this incredible research.

I glanced through the executive summary on education. How will the Department of the Taoiseach lead all this incredible knowledge? How is the Department looking to spread that knowledge, working with the Northern Ireland Executive, when it comes to implement the changes based on the research and the incredible work that has been done to allow us to become more synchronised, with our policies converging close together?