Mr. Micheál Frain:

As my colleagues have said concerning the three regions, to go back to the splintered way it was before would not be right. We are each unique. We are doing similar work but we are very unique in our own areas. For instance, we spoke about the other programmes we work on. In the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, an example would be the national planning framework, where the city of Derry and Donegal County Council are working together on a project. That is unique. At our monthly meeting this Friday, we will have a presentation from a particular community organisation that is working on a shared Ireland application. That is not unique to us and any of the other assemblies can work on that. We have partners working within our region and in east Belfast. There are very similar socioeconomic backgrounds in east Belfast and the west of Ireland, although it is hard to believe, and we are working on projects like that.

That strength of the regional authority is that we are bringing the expertise from those particular regions and reaching across because, due to what happened with Brexit, funding streams in the North have probably dried up.

That is another example of it, as is what we were working on in the context of the national planning framework, which was unique, with Derry city and Donegal County Council.