Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here. It is great to get sight of the work they do, not just the projects but also the research. I am sick to my teeth hearing there is no planning going on in this country about how we share this island. I am delighted there are 20 reports out there already. I look forward to many more coming on board. Without that research, conversations are a waste of time. The shared island unit is the only organisation doing the research that will be fruitful and meaningful. Keep at it.

The strategic rail review was initially announced by the southern Minister. I was heavily involved in getting the northern Minister included in it. I spoke to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, in the Seanad about six weeks ago. I suggested he move back to an individual announcement and, to do that, go to Northern Ireland, meet the political parties and take their comments on board. If he waits much longer, we certainly will not see a line delivered anywhere during the term of this Government. Time is of the essence and we need to get on with it. I do not think the main parties in Northern Ireland would have any issue with being consulted and their requests being made part of that announcement.

On education in the north west, uniquely we have two heads of colleges in Malachy O'Neill, provost in Magee, and Paul Hannigan in Letterkenny who collaborate extremely well. It is important to make hay when the sun shines because it is not always that you get two people who work so well together. The north west can be a showpiece for others to follow. I hope we give all the support we can to the projects in the pipeline.

On the Wild Atlantic Way, I was heavily involved with my father in delivering the peninsula-hopping project in Donegal, which was two car ferries and a bridge which opened up the whole coastline for Donegal tourism. One of those is a cross-Border ferry. It is small in stature and, if we get the kind of numbers we should get, it will be insufficient. The shared island unit could look at that for the development of tourism in the northwest.

Returning to education, the International Fund for Ireland had a group in yesterday from two schools, which a number of us met, one in Northern Ireland and the other in the south from Milford in Donegal. They are doing a collaborative project together. We cannot do enough of this. The International Fund for Ireland did something similar in the past. Jackie Redpath has spoken about it. He took students from the peace lines in Belfast to eastern European countries and maybe America as well. There is scope for more of what we saw yesterday where schools are collaborating for a swap of kids to open their eyes to what is happening elsewhere, taking them out of the environment they live in and showing them how other environments work. They do not know enough about each other North and South, particularly kids. They are at that age when their minds are open. We should look hard at development projects in that area.