Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have much sympathy with Deputy McHugh's remarks. We would like to see Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland taking the same view on this. It would be very helpful for me if the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly went to London and said that they want the A5 to be exempted, that the taxpayers are going to pay for a chunk and that they want trade between Donegal and the Border counties in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, the Assembly voted against that. The reason given by many Unionist members was that they felt that Sinn Féin in particular played a very partisan role in this. I will quote one of the people involved in the debate, Mrs. Pam Cameron MLA, who is a DUP representative. She said: "I am glad to be able to speak on this issue this afternoon. I was initially broadly in support of the motion, but given the proposer's remarks I am afraid that I simply cannot support it." The entire approach taken by Mr. Phil Flanagan MLA, who is the Sinn Féin proposer of the motion, put off many people in Northern Ireland who might have supported it. This has really harmed Irish hauliers.

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