Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. Donegal people have spread their wings throughout Ireland and beyond. I thank Ms Deane and Mr. Duffy for being here today and for their presentation. I am sorry I was not here for all of it. The work they do is vital for the future of this island. They are doing some fantastic work and long may it continue. The recent announcement was very good.

Following on from their discussion with Deputy Conway-Walsh on research, is there any research on the Protestant communities along the Border who are actually sharing the space on the island? They are probably in a different space to those in Northern Ireland. Is there any research about how they fit in on the island and what that is like from their experience?

The recent announcement of €600 million for the A5 was fabulous news but we still have difficulties within Northern Ireland. Is anything happening at Stormont level to try to get to the crux of the problem? That is from the perspective of meeting individuals on the ground who are making the objections to see if there is any way to tease that out how some of those can be addressed with the delivery of the A5. It is really important that it happens now. I was one of the first people to take a deputation to meet the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on this. He used that and announced the funding in 2007 for the A5 and the Ulster Canal. I recall at the time one of our main arguments was that the midpoint of the N2-A5, the traffic volume at Omagh was equal to the midway point on the Galway-Dublin motorway. You would find that hard to believe now. It was actually greater than Limerick or Waterford, obviously. We are now falling 20 years further behind. This project is so critical to us, as are the two parts at either end, the N2 to Clontibret and the TEN-T project in Donegal, which is progressing, but they all need to knit together. I am interested in any word the witnesses have around that.

The introduction of an hourly rail service between Belfast and Dublin was mentioned. Again, from my north-western perspective, the area west of the River Bann in Northern Ireland is in most need infrastructurally. That is not to say there is not great need on the east coast to develop as well but we have been completely starved from existing rail, not to mention proposed rail. There are no funds yet. Are there any plans to do anything with the existing rail line from Derry to Belfast? It has so much potential from the fifth largest city to the second largest. We cannot just let it sit there and ignore it. If there are no plans, can we look at doing something about that? It is critical. Because it is so out of date, it is so slow and delivering nowhere near its potential.

Finally, I have had a number of engagements with members of the Orange Order and the Protestant community on the Battle of the Boyne. Is there €10 million for that? Can we get some detail on that? Some have approached me about developing a greenway between Carrickfergus down through the relevant sites from a Protestant-unionist perspective. We do not interact enough North and South, whether it is Protestants coming South or us as southerners moving North. We have not experienced each other or the hinterlands. That would be a vein that the Protestant community would be interested in using if it was in place.