Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I want to put on record, on behalf of my co-chairperson, Laurence Robertson MP, and BIPA members, our thanks to the Ceann Comhairle, the Cathaoirleach, the Captain and the ushers for the fantastic welcome that was given this week to the 44th plenary session.

I thank the Tánaiste for the opportunity to debate the plenary session in the Chamber, and as co-chair a key aim of mine is to make the work of the assembly transparent and focused on practical outcomes. That is the reason I introduced a number of innovations for this year's plenary session, including having the debate televised live, seeking a debate in the Dáil on its outcome and selecting a theme inviting practical outcomes, which makes business easier between Britain and Ireland. The assembly plays a valuable role and I wanted to bring it to the attention of the public and hold ourselves to account. We should follow up on some key ideas from the plenary session.

The Taoiseach, in addressing the plenary session, called on us to be ambitious about the role the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly can play, and I, along with other members, take up that challenge. Before mentioning a few of the outcomes, I will make reference to the original objective of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, as it was in 1990, which was to get people talking, build trust and create an environment where people could build relationships and work on many positive ideas in the peace process. With that in mind, I acknowledge the role of many former members who worked proactively and engaged in the peace process. I also acknowledge the officials, on both the British and Irish end, who have worked towards a well-crafted and well-written Good Friday Belfast Agreement. We should note the work done by officials. We are sometimes good at lauding our colleagues, peers and former political representatives but it is also important to acknowledge the role of officials.

In that regard I acknowledge the presence of Mr. Andrew Staunton, who represents the British Embassy today, and Ambassador Chilcott, who attended the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly for the first time. I acknowledge the presence of our deputy ambassador to London, Ms Barbara Jones, who was present during the plenary session. It was also significant to see the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Mr. Owen Paterson, MP, who represented the British Government at a Cabinet level at the assembly.

The annual British-Irish trade mission proposal by Mr. Seán O'Driscoll, CEO of Glen Dimplex, was worthy and went down very well with assembly members. It is an idea I will pursue with my members and the steering committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in future. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, who is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is sitting next to me. We offer our facilities in working towards the idea of a possible British-Irish trade mission. As Irish people we sometimes forget what is on our doorstep and believe faraway fields are constantly greener. These may be trade missions to Beijing or deepening relationships with Boston or Berlin. We should not forget the close and intrinsic link with the British community. As the Taoiseach stated, it is our closest economic ally and friend. That issue is worth pursuing and as was suggested at the plenary session, perhaps something could be done in conjunction with the Gathering in 2013. We are looking at a date in March 2013 for a meeting of the assembly, and we hope that will take in the idea of developing stronger relationships within the business community.

I acknowledge the contributions by many members on health synergies across Britain and Ireland. There is the success of the partnership approach between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to develop radiotherapy facilities at Altnagelvin Hospital, and we should expand that to other potential areas of cross-Border and east-west co-operation. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan referred to the process where Irish boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy go to Newcastle to avail of services to treat the disease. The Minister for Health was present on Monday, and he indicated it is not feasible to expect all rare diseases to be managed on a stand-alone basis by individual jurisdictions. There are significant advantages from a quality and economies of scale perspective to widening these matters beyond borders. Although we are focused primarily on the site of the new children's hospital in Ireland, we should also examine how to work together on sharing services. There will be co-operation behind the scenes but if we are to have a state of the art children's hospital providing a range of services, we should consider shared services and synergies on an east-west basis.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport spoke about transport challenges in aviation, ferries and cabotage as it relates to the haulage industry. It was interesting in that respect to see 100% participation of Welsh Assembly members on that issue, which is indicative of the unique links in this regard between Wales and Ireland. We can co-operate on those matters in future.

Ms Darina Allen gave valuable insight into the future of food tourism with potential synergies in that area. It was a valid contribution that took in regulation and how nonsensical regulation can impinge on people developing their own businesses. We must be conscious of that.

As well as pursuing the outcomes I have set out, I will also follow through on the new areas of shared interest which emerged during the debate and which will inform the agenda of future meetings. Peripheral to the meeting was energy security, and I will bring the matter to the steering committee in July. We may shape the next Irish plenary session around the area of energy security. This does not just deal with transmission of energy - at that stage we will have the interconnector between the UK and Ireland that EirGrid will operate - but rather how to get communities involved and overcome obstacles to grid access. There is also the difficult local planning issues that come with wind turbines. I will propose that we consider offshore energy, including ocean and tidal technology, at the next session.

There were other issues raised, such as the lack of price honesty from airlines, the importance of the decade of centenaries, the strengthening of the common travel area and the creation of a mini-Schengen area between Britain and Ireland. President Higgins stated:

The debates, discussions and reports are important in themselves but their true value lies outside the plenary session. What you learn and share over the course of the sessions must be used to inform and enhance the debates in your own legislative assemblies but also, more importantly, in your own communities.

Our assembly has risen to the challenge and we do not want to work as an independent unit. We want to work with other assemblies and Ministers with portfolios. I thank the Tánaiste and the Government as a whole for facilitating this morning's session. We are looking for continuity and we will work in a proactive way. I look forward to updating the Parliament about this work regularly.

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