Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

As my colleagues know, I am not into making silly political points. I hope that in the course of the Minister, Deputy Michéal Martin's time in the Department of Foreign Affairs or that of his successor there will be ongoing dialogue and changes regarding the political arrangements in Northern Ireland in so far as they affect the Republic and Great Britain. It is necessary that changes be made in small steps. This will allow people to feel much more comfortable and bring them along. I welcome the progress made. We look forward to seeing the arrangement working on the ground.

I listened with interest to Senator Quinn who talked about everyday engagement between people on both sides of the Border. We have great progress to make in this respect. During the years at meetings of my party, be it a branch or constituency meeting, with ten, 50 or 100 people present, as a little experiment I used to ask who had been to various places. When I asked how many had been to the United States, virtually every hand went up; when I asked how many had been to Berlin, 80% went up, but when I asked how many had been to Belfast, very few went up. We had and still have a slight mental block about travelling to Northern Ireland and engaging with its people. We must make progress in this regard.

When I was a member of a local authority, I often expressed my bemusement to the Minister's predecessors about signs indicating certain villages were twinned with certain towns in France. Some 95% of the landmass of Brittany appears to be twinned with some part of the island of Ireland, which is all very laudable. Some place is twinned with Nova Scotia, while another is twinned with Auckland. On the initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and with the active engagement of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, there should be a much greater effort to twin towns, villages and parishes, particularly small ones, in the South with similar entities in Northern Ireland. When I raised this matter in the Seanad some years ago, one of the Minister's colleagues – I am thankful I forget who – was particularly upset and said one part of the island of Ireland should not be twinned with another because it would be acknowledging the Border. We must think beyond this. It would be nice if people in Mallow had more dialogue with people in Magherafelt and if Skibbereen had its eye on Portadown or other such town rather than on Russia. That would be a very small step but it would allow a useful exchange of views between people on both sides of the Border. It is a question of allowing them to be more comfortable with each other.

The first time I went to Northern Ireland as a politician was probably when I was going to attend a conference organised by the SDLP held somewhere outside Belfast. I decided to stay the night before in Dundalk in the belief it was much safer and more comfortable physically and mentally, rather than park my car on the streets of Belfast. That was negative thinking but it was shared by many across the island. It may still be shared by too many and we must distance ourselves from it. The only way to do this is by having more contact, meetings and dialogue. While the putting in place of a political settlement in the North is very important, on which I commend all those concerned who were led by the Minister, we still have a long way to go to build the invisible bridges between the North and South.

Senator Norris referred to shopping in Northern Ireland. It almost became a capital sin before Christmas to shop in Newry. While there was an economic argument to be considered and ministerial responsibility and budgetary policy could be faulted, it was a little ironic, as Senator Norris stated, that some of those in favour of a united Ireland wanted to keep the Border. Senator Keaveney will know this.