Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

There are a number of cross-Border institutions which I can discuss from a Donegal perspective. They include the peace and reconciliation fund, the international fund for Ireland and the INTERREG programme. All of them have done much good work in the last five years for which I congratulate them.

The current situation has reached an impasse but, from my perspective, the glass is half full rather than half empty. As a Donegal man I never saw the Border in the first place because socially, economically and politically the two areas are interlinked. I sit on a political cross-Border group with members from Derry and Strabane local councils. People from the Bogside and Waterside in Derry and from Northern Ireland generally have bought land in Donegal. The area is a social melting pot. Economically, Donegal's greatest business comes from the North. Business in Letterkenny is thriving because of the spending power of people from Northern Ireland.

The politicians who represent the people of Northern Ireland on both the Unionist and Nationalist sides must come clean. We have been working together but they are not conveying that message. We need honesty. I welcome this debate because people are being honest. Language is important. There has to be honesty in the messages being delivered by Unionists and Nationalists in their speeches. That also applies on this side of the Border. Until that happens there will not be peace in Northern Ireland.

The kernel of the problem in Northern Ireland is sectarianism. When young people in County Donegal are asked to debate the Northern Ireland issue they read from Sinn Féin scripts. They still talk about 300 years ago and about getting Brits out of Northern Ireland. They continue to use this language but that is no longer reality. We are living in a working community, North and South, and we should demand honest language from both the Unionist and Nationalist representatives in Northern Ireland.

I could talk all day about this issue but I have no more time.