Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reports to which the Deputy refers help inform us to support our enterprise base and help it grow. I prefer to talk about the benefits of a strong all-island partnership. The national development plan contains a full chapter on that. It is a question of building partnership. It is not a question of barriers or using language that inflames. I am from the Border area and I can tell the Deputy that jobs in Fermanagh, Armagh and Tyrone benefit people in Cavan, Monaghan and across the Border area. Jobs in Derry benefit people in Donegal. We trade across the Border every day. I want to see that continue and I want to encourage more of that. I want to develop regional clusters because in the area from which I come there is a very strong engineering tradition and I want to see how we can work together better. We will achieve far more if we collaborate. That is the most important thing.

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