Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply.

In the context of the review of the capital plan, I appeal to him again to use his influence with colleagues in Government to put a Brexit focus on the re-prioritisation of capital expenditure. It is the one competence we have in addressing Brexit. We will not find it until the next capital plan post-2020 and I appeal to the Minister to try to ensure that sections of the project are included. The section that I am most concerned about at present is the Cootehill-Shercock-Carrickmacross-Dundalk element of the overall route. Other parts of it also need upgrading. Other parts are up to good standard.

The Minister might also pursue with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform the possible availability of cohesion funding post-2020. The current round of Structural Funds, to my knowledge, ends in 2020. I understand there may be scope for us to seek cohesion funding. Back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, I remember many vexed debates in this House about Objective One status for different parts of the country and the division of the country as such. Thankfully, with economic development, we lost and were beyond the criteria to draw down cohesion funding. A case should be made post-2020, with Brexit and the unfortunate challenges and adverse impacts it will have on the Border economy in particular, that as a State we should seek access to cohesion funding again with a view to upgrading the infrastructure in the area that is and will be most adversely affected by the impact of Brexit.

I sincerely hope the Minister will try to pursue a number of aspects of advancing this project with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We need to support existing enterprise in the Border region and we need to support those enterprises that will hopefully be able to expand. Currently, currency devaluation, the fluctuation of sterling and all of that poses particular difficulties for them, and again we have a huge focus on indigenous industry. Indigenous manufacturing products generally go to our nearest market. Manufacturers in the indigenous sector, such as agri-food, are very dependent, though not solely, on the sterling area for export.

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