Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for that detailed update and I wholeheartedly agree with the comments made by Deputy Brendan Smith, particularly on the central Border region as he knows I have ties to the area as well. I would like to ask supplementary questions on two areas. The Taoiseach mentioned the shared island economic recovery dialogue. There is a great opportunity for the State to lead here based on the generous proposals of the European Commission last week on the Northern Irish protocol and the withdrawal agreement and to harness the true potential of the shared economic opportunities available to the entire island. That is crucially important. More practically, there is a political role to be played here due to the abdication of responsibility by certain parties in Northern Ireland towards the North-South Ministerial Council. This is somewhere that the shared island unit of the Department of the Taoiseach and the shared island initiative can play a particular role in harnessing the collective will for greater all-Ireland co-operation, particularly in the economic sphere.

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