Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I did not have any particular difficulty in meeting the Ballymurphy families in Dublin. I wanted to save them the trouble of having to come down but I am quite happy to meet them in Belfast when I travel there. I cannot confirm I will be travelling there this month but it will be in the next matter of weeks. As soon as I get a fix on that, I will certainly advise the House.

No progress was made on the North-South consultative forum on Friday which I regret. I was a member of the body which was involved in the creation of the first British-Irish Parliamentary Association way back in the 1980s. There was the same sort of talk about this being set up going on for ages. When it happened, it began to move very quickly, however. The Ceann Comhairle and the Speaker, Mr. Hay, have my full support in the work they are doing in this regard. Deputy McDonald can take it that we are anxious that it would be set up as quickly as possible. This could bring a new initiative and new impetus to what herself and Deputy Martin spoke about. Politicians certainly have a habit of that.

The structures of the North-South ministerial meetings are such that one does not have the opportunity to have in-depth discussions about making decisions in some of these matters. Much of that has to do with the quality of the interaction between Ministers in between meetings. That has to be driven by Ministers themselves in respect of the issues they wish to see pursued.

Deputy McDonald made an interesting point about fiscal powers. It remains to be seen what will happen in this area. We would be generally supportive of a decision to reduce the level of corporation tax rate in the North. That would make the issues of the island economy stronger and clearer. The intention here is to devolve responsibility down to local authorities. It is a matter for the Executive as to what it wants to do in Northern Ireland.

The timescale for the A5-N8 road upgrade have been set out by the planners and the Executive. The centre section is in question - they have decided which sections they want to start. From memory, I cannot tell the proposed completion date. We are supportive of this project. If economic circumstances were better here, we would have a different perspective. I explained to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister that due to constraints here, we deferred many major infrastructure projects in the Republic but that we wished to make a valid contribution to the A5-A8 project which was accepted.

Deputy McDonald's point about the joint delegations is interesting.

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