Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the North-South elements of the national development plan, our new plan covers the period to 2013. It sets out a comprehensive overview of the all-island co-operation and the proposals for enhancing co-operation in a range of areas — transport, education, research and development and health. These include joint investment in strategic projects that will be of mutual benefit to both jurisdictions and a more effective use of the existing funding on an all-island basis. It is also a good timely development for us in North-South co-operation and there has been a comprehensive overview of that co-operation.

On the projects about which Deputy Ó Caoláin asked, the NDP identified key areas for joint investment initiatives. Included in this is a new strategic projects proposal to complete a high quality road network on the inter-urban routes linking the major population centres of Dublin, Belfast and the north-west, with particular development of the dual-carriageway standard road to Derry and Donegal, and remove the single largest impediment to the future development of the Border counties. Both organisations, the NRA and its northern counterpart, and the Departments are working on that. When I visited Derry and Omagh I met some of the relevant people to try to move it on. We are anxious to make as much progress as possible as quickly as possible in the same way as we deal with a project here. We have put together all our expertise and all our departmental officials to make that progress, particularly on the road project.

We have committed to examining the restoration of the Ulster Canal as a joint project with Northern Ireland. This was considered at the meeting in July and it was agreed that the section of the Ulster Canal between Clones and Lough Erne would be restored. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, who has been taking the lead on that project, has had a number of meetings since September on it.

Now that the Northern Ireland Executive is up and running, it will benefit from the improved financial package that was announced in April last by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. The package consisted of €35 million for the Executive over the next four years and support of €18 billion in capital investment for the period until 2017. That package also includes €1 billion, of which €400 million comes from ourselves, to improve infrastructure and for the projects. In all the technical preparation and administration work, all our people have been advised, on a North-South basis and in the Ministerial Councils, to take the action necessary to move them forward as quickly as possible.

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