Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the kind comments that have been articulated on this. Senator Blaney spoke about the shared island creating a space that is not a threatening. It is important that it is creating a space where people, respecting each other's views on the constitutional question, can participate without fear or favour. It is not a Trojan horse; it is designed to pragmatically create opportunities to solve problems on the island and enhance working together on the island.

The research is very significant because this is the first time that we have had a systematic research programme on different services and systems in the two jurisdictions on the island. For example, the analysis this morning is of the education systems from primary to tertiary, and the outcomes. It particularly focuses on school completion and educational disadvantage. There are clear conclusions that on school completion there is a greater degree of early school leaving in the Northern system than there is in the Republic and that the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, programme and school completion programmes from the 1990s onwards and throughout the early 2000s have had a clear impact on improving school attainment and school completion in the Republic.

We would like to work with the new Executive and the UK Government in taking that forward. Senator McGreehan asked how we can take it forward. We also have lessons to learn from the North. The Executive has taken an initiative on this and had an expert panel to examine this. We would like to share ideas. At one level of the education ecosystem is teacher research. I would like to see the Drumcondra research centre with its counterpart in the North getting together and having an exchange in the first instance to look at the metrics to identify schools that would be eligible for a certain level of support, as we did in the Republic.

Educational disadvantage is a very long haul. We cannot do stop-start initiatives. It cannot be just a project-based initiative. What came across from the stakeholder forum, which formed part of the ESRI research was that the educational communities, North and South, are ready to move beyond the project-based or ad hocapproach to educational projects. They really want a more systemic programme-based long-term approach.

We stand ready to support any initiative in the North through funding and so on. Obviously, we need to work with the educational interests in the North, the Executive and the UK Government. We are very determined because it has been a long-term view of mine that this is one area that has not been progressed sufficiently in terms of early school leaving. As Minister for Education and Science, I was involved in educational development projects in the Republic. It is a long-held passion of mine that every child should be entitled to get an opportunity to complete school, irrespective of background, tradition or whatever. We should do whatever we can on the island. As co-guarantors of the agreement, that is an interest of ours.

Health is very important. I will cover the three contributions together. I was in Altnagelvin Hospital last week. The Republic had allocated approximately €20 million to the cancer centre there. Patients on both sides of the Border benefit from that collaboration. In the cath labs, I met patients from County Donegal who had just had stents inserted. Instead of travelling to Galway city, it was a 20-minute journey to Altnagelvin Hospital. I know that Deputy Smith is interested in Daisy Hill Hospital. We should look at the health area and use the research base to see if we can add capacity to the health services in the Border area and look at it from a more regional perspective. We need to see if we can win further support from both jurisdictions to add to that capacity and provide accessible services regionally. That would also apply to Enniskillen and so forth. The research will help us to do that.

The NESC research was particularly important because it is very strong on the climate issue. Already out of the dialogues, an all-island climate biodiversity network has been established. An all-island women's network has also been established arising from the dialogues. The NESC report is particularly valuable.

People know my position on legacy. I am very clear. We have to listen to victims. There cannot be any attempt at changing what both governments have agreed to. There cannot be unilateralism on this front or any amnesties or anything like that. I have been very clear. I have met many victims groups in the past while. We need to continue to listen to the victims and put them centre stage.

My view, which applies to what Senator McGreehan said, is that the three sets of relationships that underpin the Good Friday Agreement are the key to this island. Those are the North-South and British-Irish relationships and the traditions within the North. They still remain the cornerstone of this island and will remain so far into the future.

I could not agree more with Deputy Smith on further education. We have to link further education to the idea of progression pathways, greater student mobility on the island and we have to try to harmonise qualifications frameworks as best we can to facilitate student mobility. We were up at the postgraduate medicine course on the University of Ulster's Magee campus. Some students who are studying medicine there cannot get placements in the Republic which is not satisfactory. We just have to create greater mobility and be flexible. Our institutions and agencies in the Republic have to be far more flexible in facilitating this mobility of people such as workers and students across the board. I do not know where I am on time. I apologise.