Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I want to raise the issue that the ESB is to buy the Northern Ireland Electricity networks business. This will represent a move from having two grids to eventually having one grid and one-island energy. In the week when the North-South Ministerial Council met and its members spoke about economies of scale, co-operation and infrastructural integration, it is appropriate that today we should welcome the fact that matters have moved on.

We have not had a great deal of input into what is raised at North-South Ministerial Council level nor have we had an adequate opportunity to respond to issues raised at North-South Ministerial Council meetings. Given that the council is very much concerned with bread and butter issues in regard to the development of the island of Ireland and given that there will be another North-South Ministerial Council meeting in the autumn, would it be possible to have a session in the next term at which we could put forward our ideas on the issues remaining to be raised, for example, the all-Ireland mobile phone packages? We could contribute to the agenda of the council in terms of many issues raised in the House and get a response from it following its meeting in that respect. The circulation of a press release is not adequate. In the North the Assembly debates these things before and after they are issued and it is a sign of our interest or disinterest or disinterest in an all-island economy if we do not have it on our agenda as something to which we would aspire and want to see realised.