Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. It is great to hear from them and I congratulate them on all their work. It has been an investment well made and the results are very clear. We all know the ESRI's research is crucial to us in moving forward to whatever constitutional status, but simply in moving forward to a better island of Ireland, no matter what goes on. We are stuck together no matter what. It is a great foundation for advancing the economies North and South. It is great that the ESRI's research is free of ideology. Facts speak for themselves. They are plain and simple. To be honest they are stark.

I am from north Louth, near Newry. This is my reality. When I was growing up, and it is spoken about quite a lot, jokingly, when we went across the Border, it was like driving onto a carpet because of the roads. Now it is the opposite. It is a visual difference in how the two states are being funded or of the expectation of what we want. It is stark.

When I was leaving school and earlier, many people went to college in Newry. They went to learn their trades or do childcare and beautician courses in the Southern Regional College in Newry. It is no longer happening. They now go to Dundalk. Our educational focus has done a complete U-turn, as has much of our social focus. Strangely, the economic growth in the two states in the past 25 years has almost made partition in my area greater because we do not look to the North as much as we did, although we still go to The Quays for a good shop, but that is the reality.

The witnesses have highlighted many stark, depressing differences. If I think of a child growing up in the Cooley Peninsula versus a child growing up in Newcastle in south Down, they have different opportunities. That is absolutely wrong. I can see them when I look across Carlingford Lough. Their educational attainment and economic outlook can be different and that is absolutely wrong. The witnesses have outlined differences. Have any similar policies been pushed both North and South but had different outcomes because of the externalities? The witnesses spoke about the integrated approach we have and the different political systems.

We must plan in order to look forward. We have differences. A lot of work needs to be done. Are there any plans to write down a few ways in which we can converge in our policies? What are the most efficient ways for us as a committee or for other committees to push to start converging and getting the best of the North and the best of the South and making the best of both pots?

Are there any low-hanging fruit for co-operation? We know co-operation North and South needs to be nice and easy. It needs to be steady, to have simple, good outcomes and it needs to be clear that co-operation works. Are there any low-hanging fruit we can grasp and say, let us do that?

We co-operate through necessity at the moment. Donegal and Derry have their hospitals and healthcare. Newry provides dialysis for much of County Louth. We have co-operation through necessity. Is there any research into moving forward on that?

Has the ESRI done anything on or are there plans - I am not sure if this is for the ESRI but perhaps the witnesses can advise us - for a framework for co-operation, to counteract the differences, including the budgetary differences and the jurisdictional differences? When I was a councillor on Louth County Council a few years ago, we worked a lot with Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. Many of the barriers that came in front of us related to process, such as how the district council did budgets. It has control of waste and other things. Do the witnesses have any advice on how to work towards an adequate framework? If we can get the local authorities working efficiently and better, we will have a better policy on the ground. That always feeds up. Local authorities always show up. The Members of the Assembly in the North do not always show up. The local authorities are there. A framework could be a good way of moving forward.