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

I warmly welcome the Taoiseach's response and the Government decision yesterday to allocate very substantial funding to a range of projects that will benefit all of our country. I particularly welcome the funding for the N2 scheme between Clontibret and the Border in County Monaghan and the development of the A5, which is a crucial artery in building and strengthening the all-Ireland economy. Thankfully, today we have an all-Ireland economy that is being strengthened. The economy North and South is very interdependent.

At the same time, I would like to see the Ulster final remain in Clones. Cavan has a very good history, having won 40 Ulster titles, by far the most of any county in the province. Many of them were won in Clones. We look forward to winning more Ulster titles in Clones on Ulster final day.

At Question Time yesterday we discussed the potential for collaboration in further and higher education. I am particularly glad that funding was agreed by the Government yesterday for pilot co-operation on educational attainment. In the very dark days of this island, the Wider Horizons programme, funded by the International Fund for Ireland, was very beneficial. The programme brought together groups of young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 from socially and economically disadvantaged areas for training, work experience and personal development. Those young people were involved in projects in America, Australia and Canada, with people from those countries travelling to this island as well. The programme consisted of young people from Northern Ireland and our State. I was very familiar with those projects at the time because a number of them were centred in counties Cavan and Monaghan. Our Oireachtas colleague Senator Diarmuid Wilson, as the Youthreach co-ordinator in County Cavan at that time, was instrumental in putting many of those programmes in place. On a visit about a year ago to the Shankill I met senior loyalists. Some of those leaders said to me that they would love to see us reintroduce the Wider Horizons programme. They told me about individuals from families who had gone on those programmes and were transformed for the better from the point of view of getting skills, getting a job and having a different attitude to the rest of this island. It was transformative for those people and very important for society. From the point of view of education and training, I would love if a programme similar to the Wider Horizons programme could be reconstituted for young people from economically disadvantaged communities North and South.

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