Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

——including the former Senator McGowan. I salute all those who have worked at a community level and the agencies, including the INTERREG I, II and III initiatives, the EU Peace & Reconciliation Fund, the International Fund for Ireland, Co-operation Ireland and ADM's CPA programmes. The people involved in these organisations are the real risk-takers at a cross-Border level.

I also wish to include the members of local authorities, my former colleagues from Donegal County Council of which I was a member in 1999. They were involved in cross-Border groups with councillors from counties Monaghan, Cavan, Louth, Leitrim and Sligo. The process originated with every person who was involved in taking risks at a local level. That is where it started and we, as politicians, should acknowledge that.

The job does not stop here, it starts here, be it in regard to infrastructural projects or cross-Border health projects. We must fund the cross-Border plans that are in place, face up to the realities of the challenges and acknowledge that we have to continue into the future the work that has begun.