Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for his reply.

Will he confirm that his Department and all others have been requested by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, to incorporate the all-Ireland dimension in their submissions for the next National Development Plan 2007-2013? I assume the Minister can refer directly only to his own Department, but as it is the anchor Department regarding preparation of the NDP, can he give us a sense of how seriously the issue is being taken across the Departments? What discussion and consultation has taken place with ministerial counterparts North of the Border? Has there been any consultation with the parties and other interested sectors in the North of Ireland? Were submissions sought, for instance?

While the common chapter of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 marked what one might term a tentative step away from the back-to-back approach that applied hitherto, which resulted in serious under development and the failure of natural communities to reach their full potential on both sides of the Border, does the Minister agree that we need not a common chapter but a common development plan to address all past failures properly and substantively?

Did the Minister note a statement by John Bradley of the Economic and Social Research Institute in a paper that he presented in Armagh earlier this year entitled "An island economy or island economies? Ireland after the Belfast Agreement"? In it, he said that the unfortunate reality is that both North and South are attempting to improve their competitive advantages largely in isolation from each other. What is the new regime now in place? Can the Minister elaborate on his reply, assuring us that we are in a new era of co-operation? What new areas of co-operation are intended under the new NDP?

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