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

I entirely agree with the Cathaoirleach. As Lord Alderdice said, we have a small population on our island of 7 million people. There are some services that are very difficult to deliver in a scattered method. On the point made by the Cathaoirleach and Senator Blaney regarding the shared island unit, earlier Lord Alderdice mentioned it would be a helpful way of moving forward a number of issues. This day last week, I was at an event in Cavan where An Taoiseach announced 25 projects that were being funded through the local authorities to develop further proposals for large-scale infrastructural investment in tourism, climate action and a range of activities. Significantly, 23 of our local authorities are involved in these projects. Every local authority in Northern Ireland is involved, as are local authorities down from as far away as Cork and Kerry. It is great to see it. There are joint proposals for North-South projects and all-Ireland projects. There were people attending who hold the position of chair or cathaoirleach of various councils North and South. Regardless of their political viewpoint, there was an extremely warm welcome for these proposals. Many of them are projects we have spoken about North and South over the years but they have never been funded or progressed. From that point of view, it is a practical way of building communities across the Border.

The shared island unit has issued invitations to attend a dialogue series next week in Belfast. There is an event at Queens University Belfast on culture and arts and the challenges and opportunities for all of our island. There is another event in the Titanic Quarter, with a joint initiative by the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach and the ESRI comparing the education and training systems North and South. This is doing effective work that can put better systems in place to benefit people of both communities regardless of what viewpoint they hold or what political tradition they come from. That is very important.

I heard An Taoiseach say in the Dáil at Question Time on Tuesday that more than 3,000 people have partaken in the dialogue series. This is really getting civic engagement. People go along to events on a subject matter in which they have a particular interest. This is the type of engagement that will take place in Belfast next week at two different events. That is welcome. We are speaking about all-Ireland forums. It would be very beneficial if the civic forum constituted in Stormont many years ago were reconstituted. It is always important that we have as much local engagement from a civic point of view as is possible.