Mr. Paddy Malone:

Senator Quinn's marketing genius is well known. I could not agree more that we need a name for the region because calling it some combination of Mournes, Gullion and Cooley does not even give us three initials that make sense or rhyme with something else. We would love to get the name right.

The geo-tourism project to which Senator White referred lasted three years and is now finished. The project aimed to map the entire area and identify its potential. In the 1960s, prior to the Troubles, Oxford University brought its students to Slieve Gullion because it is an extinct volcano. Slieve Gullion and Crossmaglen have developed a different reputation since then but there is no reason why we cannot return to our earlier history. I agree that the geo-potential for the area is enormous. Cooley is 20 million years older than the Mournes. There are three different geological sites in the one area, with a deep water lough in the middle. There is no other lough on the east coast and Killary Harbour is the only comparable one on the west coast.

A ferry service is being developed between Greenore and Greencastle. This project is one of the slowest moving things I have ever seen. I hope the ferry does not move as slowly. The former ferry between Warrenpoint and Omeath, to which Senator Quinn referred, had some value. The ferry would benefit the Greenore and Greencastle area by opening up the Mournes in particular. The southerners believe it will bring greater benefit to the North by opening up the Mournes and Silent Valley but the northern side seems to be more resistant to the project. This is one of the problems that arise when one straddles two jurisdictions. We have to convince people it is a win-win situation.

This is a collaboration between two jurisdictions that will remain separate jurisdictions until, as the Constitution stipulates, the majority vote to change it. We need to get that message through constantly and we need to show the hand of friendship. I have been to conferences run in Warrenpoint and Newry and because representatives of certain political parties were present, I was asked not to speak, which, as Deputy Fitzpatrick will know, for me is almost impossible.

I refer to the shopping side of things. Our submission indicated the staccato nature of shopping in the area - it is stop-go, stop-go. At the moment we are slightly go - not as much as it went the other way. I remember talking to people in Newry about it in 2009 and 2010. The unpredictability of it means we cannot have long-term planning, which results in both sides having too many shops. The Dundalk area has too many shopping centres and Newry has too many as is. The reason Newry is not represented here today is that another one is being planned, which is madness. This lack of co-ordination between North and South is destroying both areas and is not making life easy for us.

We made reference earlier to the DkIT and the Northern side. Deputy Fitzpatrick mentioned 5,000 students. It is 3,000 full-time students and nearly 3,000 part-time students. It fluctuates between 5,000 and 6,000. Last year I believe there were only 40 from the North even though Newry is only eight miles away. I have spoken to Mr. Boylan and Ms Orla Jackson, the chief executive of Newry Chamber, about it. Most students in the North are not aware that the DkIT is a university because they do not see it as such. They see it as something similar to a VEC. They do not see it as an alternative to Queen's University, which is a problem. By contrast, the DkIT attracts 200 Chinese people meaning that the DkIT has five times as many students from mainland China as it has from eight miles up the road. Something must be wrong with a system that gives that result.

Deputy Lawlor made reference to Newgrange and the Boyne Valley. I hope that area will be advertised better than it has been. It needs co-operation between Louth County Council and Meath County Council, and I think that will happen. In the same way, we would hope that in the northern end of the county, Louth County Council will co-operate with the authorities in counties Armagh and Down in spreading that message.

We have talked about Newgrange and everybody knows about the Battle of the Boyne and all the rest of it. In three years the Louth area will have a significant anniversary. The last High King of Ireland was King Edward the Bruce, brother of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. He was the last recognised High King of Ireland and was crowned as such in Dundalk. He ruled Ireland for three years. The strength of his organisation spread as far south as Limerick. So it was not just a local clan claiming he was something he was not. He had all of Ulster, because Ulster was the most Gaelic of all the provinces in Ireland.