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

I wish to briefly raise my concern about the continuing boycott of meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council by certain parties in the Northern Ireland Executive and how that is impacting at a time when so many studies and Irish Government initiatives are showing not just the importance but the opportunities of cross-Border initiatives from an economic and social point of view. Seeing the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, in the North visiting Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University Magee campus yesterday shows the real potential in higher education and indeed the wider shared island initiative. As we come to the end of this calendar year, with elections in Northern Ireland next year and the sword of Damocles continuing to hang over us in the British Government's threat to trigger Article 16, where are we on ensuring we can get an element of normality back into relations not just North-South but also east-west?

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