Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Mr. D'Arcy to the meeting. I also welcome his presentation and the report. Like Deputy Conlan, I intend to read the report. We suffer overloads sometimes, as the Chairman will confirm. We are in receipt of so many documents on a given day and, sadly, one cannot read them all. However, in this case it is incumbent on us to read and study it because of the region we represent. I see merit in what Deputy Conlan said about follow-up discussions with Mr. D'Arcy as we read the report.

I will focus briefly on the area of cross-Border co-operation, the economy and the prosperity agenda that everyone can buy into, to use that phrase. Tourism holds great potential. We have lakeland areas and heritage sites which have been under-exploited. There is a potential to create a branding for the area to market it abroad more effectively. We have more potential to market our Border area. There may be a need for some flagship events. I refer to the impact of the all-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil held in Cavan which is difficult to quantify. Apart from its cultural and aesthetic merits which are unquantifiable, there is the purely economic impact with €40 million coming into the area as a result. We need to look to organise flagship events in the Border region and also to create marketing brands for the lakeland areas. We seem to have missed out down the years. We may be the Cinderella area in terms of the national tourism product and tourism numbers. We have been on the periphery. Our Chairman's County Donegal would not have suffered to the same extent. However, in the other Border counties we are on the periphery in terms of marketing for tourism purposes. I refer to the beauty of the Cavan-Louth area and the Fermanagh-Tyrone area. The attractions offered by those areas were not packaged very well over the years. I look forward to Mr. D'Arcy's comments in this regard.