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

I hope the Minister will be able to visit again. Local councillor John Paul Feeley and I worked very hard, along with Cavan County Council and Fáilte Ireland, to bring the project to this stage. Local constituents have told me that the Minister of State in the Department visited the geopark quite recently. He is very familiar with the area.

It is important that the interpretive centre, the discovery centre, promote the history and culture of the area and the importance of the River Shannon, our country's longest river at 360 km. The development of walking trails and a major viewing point will create economic activity and jobs and add to the general attraction of the cross-Border Burren area. We know about the boardwalk on the northern side of the Cuilcagh mountains and the huge number of visitors who go there annually. There is massive potential to grow the tourism product further.

The UNESCO cross-Border geopark would not have happened had the North–South Ministerial Council not been functioning at the time. Arlene Foster, as minister for investment and tourism in Northern Ireland and I, as a member of the Government here, were able to take a particular interest in the project and ensure funding was sourced from the European Union and our own Exchequers. That demonstrates clearly the potential of the North–South Ministerial Council and the further development of the tourism product on cross-Border and all-Ireland bases.

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