Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Brendan Smith asked about the legacy Bill. He raises these issues regularly in the Chamber. I welcome that because it keeps them on the agenda. I will certainly continue to discuss them with Prime Minister Sunak any time we meet.

Deputy Durkan asked about the Executive and the assembly. I am keen to work with them and to work closely with the new First Minister and the deputy First Minister. In fairness, they have got off to a good start, which is encouraging. We want the Executive to be a success and I hope today's announcement will in some way assist them in the work they are doing, although the investment is not just for Northern Ireland, but for the whole country, especially for the Border areas. On sustainability, I am keen to see the Executive last, complete its term and not be disrupted by other political events, such as the UK elections or elections in this jurisdiction.

Deputy Conway-Walsh mentioned the A5. We are making a commitment of €600 million in respect of that project. I met the Minister for Infrastructure, John O'Dowd MLA, briefly when I was in Stormont two weeks ago. He said to me that at least one section of it can commence construction this year. I hope that is the case and I look forward to it happening. I agree with what Deputy Conway-Walsh said about the M2 and the Donegal trans-European transport network, TEN-T, projects, for example the Stranorlar to Lifford to Letterkenny road. We have to make sure we do the parts on our side of the Border as well as co-funding the works in Northern Ireland.

We do not have a date yet for the North-South Ministerial Council to meet, but we are keen to have an early date for a plenary meeting of the council. The council has only met once in person since 2016. That is a real shame. I would like to get back into the rhythm of those meetings happening regularly, as they used to. I would particularly like to see the North-South sectoral meetings taking place because often the real work is done when Ministers meet their counterparts in Armagh. It is less so at the plenary meetings, important though they are.

Any change to the rules of how Stormont operates would be a strand one issue. I would very much lean on the views of political parties in Northern Ireland to guide us on that, but what is important for the next few months is that we allow the Executive to settle a bit and give it a fair wind to concentrate on the bread and butter issues. I am sure we can talk about reforms and changes in due course.

Regarding Deputy Paul Murphy's question, I have not discussed Gaza with Prime Minister Sunak. It has not been on our agenda. The meetings are short.

On the Narrow Water bridge, Deputy Ó Murchú mentioned the fact that it will benefit his constituency. We are confident that we will be able to sign the contracts for the project as soon as next month, which means it could be under construction this year, perhaps by the summer.

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