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

Deputies O'Dowd and Tully and I represent Border counties, and while I will sometimes come across a woman who has given birth to a baby and works in Cavan, for example, I come across more queries from people in south Fermanagh who wonder why they cannot access oncology services in Cavan General Hospital and have to go to Belfast or Derry for some of those services.

There is so much that could be achieved if we had more co-operation. There is some co-operation. Altnagelvin Hospital is so important for Donegal, as is Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin for paediatric care for children in Northern Ireland. Of course we can build on that. When the institutions are up and running in Northern Ireland and the North-South Ministerial Council is working, I sincerely hope there will be progress in that particular area. The witnesses referred to a lot of research that is ongoing within the universities and research institutes and that is very welcome. They said it needs to be co-ordinated centrally and that makes eminent sense. Far too often those of us in politics, and I am sure those in academic life, can be talking too much to one another instead of reaching out to other people or people reaching out to us as well. From that point of view it is very important that research is co-ordinated and that we do not have overlapping or duplication of projects. There are a lot of universities in the North and South and of course in Britain, and there are many relevant research institutes North and South. I see that a lot of those research projects are funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs reconciliation unit and by the shared island unit as well. Naturally, we want to see more of that. How were the groups picked? Was there just one session with the groups or follow-up consultations with groups that were met?