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

I very much welcome the strong message that the shared island initiative will continue to identify more investment opportunities on a cross-Border and all-Ireland basis, and quite rightly. The Ulster Canal project would not have proceeded without funding from the shared island initiative. We have so much potential in the whole area of waterways development, allied to the Shannon-Erne Waterway.

About two years ago, the then Tánaiste launched a number of feasibility studies that are currently under way by local authorities North and South; for example, Cavan and Monaghan county councils are working with their counterparts north of the Border. Much of it is based on enterprise: the development of enterprise centres and the development of innovation hubs. I am very anxious that this particular study within the shared island initiative would be advanced. One thing we need in the Border counties, and particularly in the areas where local authorities have a very poor rates base and are not able to raise revenue themselves, is to get some assistance towards the development of workspaces in enterprise centres. Quite regularly enterprises talk to me about the need to get more space which they cannot afford to provide themselves. I would love to see the enterprise initiative advanced within the shared island initiative.

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