Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

They appeared before this committee. I think they came down on the side of saying that you could not be too prescriptive about it. We could well understand that. If we are talking about a border poll and I passionately want to see a united Ireland, we must do the groundwork. If a border poll is called and the right spirit and partnership does not exist between both Governments, we will get the wrong outcome, which is the last thing we want to see. We know what David Cameron did with his Brexit referendum. He asked the question but did not get the answer he expected to get so, again, it was a case of lack of preparation. If we do not have that spirit between both islands, North and South and east and west, we will be having it in the wrong atmosphere. I sincerely hope we will be able to have a border poll and a successful one but I believe there is a lot of work to be done in the meantime.

People throw out this thing about a citizens' assembly. The shared island dialogues are bringing in people interested in the environment, business and sport. This is canvassing opinion far more extensively than choosing 99 people at random to negotiate and debate all issues. There is considerable merit in the shared island dialogues in so many areas of everyday activity.

Mr. Montgomery mentioned the Royal Irish Academy. I know the Department of the Taoiseach has commissioned the ESRI or the NESC. The most extensive analysis of the education system North and South was completed recently. I think it is all of those areas that we should bring together the necessary raw material. That would pinpoint the issues we need to address.

Mr. Donoghue mentioned the potential of the agreement not being reached. I agree with him 100%. There are areas where there should have been much more North-South co-operation such as health and education. Some of it is happening but not as part of a formal structure. In the area of higher education, there is collaboration between all the colleges North and South. Over the years, this State has probably put more financial resources into those joint projects between North and South than the Northern Ireland or British exchequer. We need to continue to build that. There have been good developments in health. Again, this is an area where more work can be done. Formal structures would drive greater and more intensive co-operation.

IDA Ireland concerns and how it was protective of our image were mentioned. I can understand that. In a Dáil debate, I suggested that Enterprise Ireland should be marketing Ireland in an all-Ireland context. I got a fairly severe blast from the former First Minister Arlene Foster. That put paid to that fairly quickly. There are so many gains that could be achieved from implementing the agreement in full. There are issues that have not been addressed but there are issues that have not been addressed that were devolved to Stormont along with issues that fall under the remit of both governments. Implementing the agreement is critical.

I was talking to some people in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, the British-Irish relationship is not good at the minute. There are difficulties there. Unfortunately, the British Government has announced that it is taking the unilateral approach to some things where structures are already in place to deal with legacy issues. Legacy issues must be dealt with. The British Government has come up with proposals that are deplorable. You would associate them with some tinpot administration in central America rather than a parliamentary democracy in western Europe. It is a serious bone of contention for families of victims and victims themselves and many of the very good advocacy groups that have worked on behalf of victims over the years. Again, I thank Mr. Montgomery for his contribution.