Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and, truthfully, I enjoyed working with her on a number of the all-island education projects we worked on together. I am genuinely excited to see the Magee campus because there has been a terrible social injustice done to Derry when it comes to access to higher education provision. There is a very exciting prospect now with ATU Letterkenny in Deputy Doherty’s constituency and the Magee campus. There is a real opportunity for the north west there just as there has been with Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. I worked with the First Minister when she was health minister in the North and I was health Minister here on the cardiac network for sick kids from the North getting life-saving surgery in Crumlin hospital. There is a lot more we can do. I will be in Northern Ireland, probably on Friday week and certainly some time towards the end of next week, for a meeting with the First Minister and deputy First Minister.

I am very clear on this and that is why I got a bit of a pile-on when I made comments at the British-Irish Parliamentary Association, which the Deputy attended. I very much believe there is a need for people on this island to get to know each other a lot better. I really believe that and I base it not just on my gut but on the student mobility conversations the Deputy and I have had before. I am a person who aspires to see a united Ireland. That is my view and a legitimate aspiration I can have as a nationalist and as the Taoiseach of this country. It is just a question of emphasis in terms of how we get there. The shared island fund and the work we can do together under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement can help get people across this island to know each other better and work together better on different issues. There is not currently a plan for citizens’ assembly in the area the Deputy referenced.