Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I am pleased to make my contribution as a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. As has been said, we were in this Chamber for the very historic occasion of the 44th plenary session, which I was privileged to attend. The assembly consists of members of the parliaments of the United Kingdom and the Oireachtas, as well as five representatives from the Scottish Parliament, five from the National Assembly for Wales, five from the Northern Ireland Assembly and one each from the States of Jersey, the States of Guernsey and the Tynwald of the Isle of Man. Working together, the assembly has since it was founded done Trojan work to promote peace, justice and reconciliation throughout all of the islands.

Many speakers have focused on the atrocities that have happened and, particularly given the dates concerned, on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings and the Loughinisland massacre, and the fact the FAI has agreed the wearing of armbands for Euro 2012, rightly so. There was acute instability on these islands at that time. We must look to the work of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, the Justice for the Forgotten group and the peace commission. All of those groups on this island and the other islands should be brought to this House for a further debate on peace and reconciliation and how we could move forward on that.

Historically, the assembly has its origins in the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, which initially consisted of 25 members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and 25 members of the Oireachtas. In 1998 the British-Irish Council was established under strand three of the Good Friday Agreement. The council, or the assembly, as it is today known today, brings together Ministers from the British and Irish Governments and from all of the administrations in the various parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. In addition, Strand Three of the Good Friday Agreement stated that, as well as intergovernmental links, "the elected institutions of the members will be encouraged to develop inter-parliamentary links, perhaps building on the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body".

In 2001 the body was enlarged to include representatives of the various legislative bodies. I would like to see this enlarged further to include a local authority grouping. We all know the fantastic community and voluntary groups working on the ground with the local authorities, and such an add-on to the assembly could serve to flesh it out further. While there was a group at local authority level some years ago, it has been disbanded. I would like to see such a grouping reinvigorated and re-established under this body.

The committees that comprise the assembly meet regularly, although they could perhaps meet more regularly and take on extra work. At the most recent plenary this week, a wide range of issues were discussed and studied by the respective committees, including the role of business in supporting business and tourism, the report on SMEs, the food sector in Britain and Ireland, health provision and British-Irish economic relations.

Committee D, of which I am a member, discussed the findings of its report on flooding in Britain and Ireland. During the plenary meeting of the assembly in Brighton in October 2011, severe flooding occurred in Dublin and in England. Given the operation of river basin management and the links between North and South, we presented a report on flooding at the plenary session, with recommendations which give plenty of food for thought. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, who is responsible for the OPW, was present. He is in regular contact with the river agencies in Northern Ireland and, indeed, there is a legal requirement for cross-Border co-operation as well as east-west co-operation.

The levels of co-operation between the local authorities is good. I have just come from an Oireachtas committee meeting on the new water authority, where one of the recommendations is for an all-Ireland strategy on water provision. I will be taking that up at the next meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

The Taoiseacy said in his address to the assembly members on Monday that Britain is our closest ally. The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, commented that Britain was by some distance our most important trading partner and a transit point for trade and travel with much of the rest of Europe and the world.  It is difficult to argue with these views. British-Irish relations are imperative in terms of business and trade and it is imperative that all Governments play their parts to ensure that our relationship with our nearest neighbour continues to grow and strengthen.

We had a number of guest speakers from the business and food sectors, including Mr. Sean O'Driscoll, CEO of Glen Dimplex; Mr. Eoin Tonge, director of Greencore; Ms Sally Storey, vice president of GlaxoSmithKline Ireland; and Ms Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School, who also wears many other hats. All of the speakers acknowledged the opportunities for creating stronger links with Britain. In particular, I noted Darina Allen believes there should be huge potential for the creation of jobs in food sector tourism.

In addition, I support Sean O'Driscoll's suggestion that we should have a rotating trade mission to the United Kingdom every second year. According to his suggestion, Ireland and Britain would host trade missions from each other in alternating years, so there would be an Irish trade mission to the UK every second year. Ireland is also an important export market for the UK and I believe there would be interest from Britain in engaging with Ireland on a more formalised basis on this. In the past couple of months, Ireland engaged in high profile trade missions to the US and China, which have been instrumental in generating business for Irish companies and promoting Ireland as a country in which to invest. These trade missions are a highly effective way of displaying our wares to a dedicated audience. Britain is our nearest neighbour and by far our largest trading partner. I agree with Mr. O'Driscoll that this form of trade mission to Britain would be an effective way of promoting Ireland.

Few Irish companies have had as much success as the four we had in the House. While it is clearly important from an economic and environmental trading perspective that we maintain and reinforce our links with the United Kingdom, it is equally important that we cherish and value our shared heritage, culture and geographic ties. It is not so long since relations were so estranged that there was little or no cross co-operation or dialogue. A DUP Member of the Legislative Assembly, Jim Wells, said when he spoke in this Chamber on the historic occasion of the 44th plenary that if he had been told 20 years ago that he would visit Leinster House and speak here, he would not have believed it. That speaks volumes for everybody who was in the Chamber on the day. Also, who would have thought that the Queen would visit Ireland in 2011?

Progress has been made at political level in promoting peace and better relations North and South and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly plays a huge part in what we do in this regard. I look forward to the next meeting of the assembly and believe the outlook for the future of relations with Britain is very positive. Networking with members, be they political or non-political is invaluable. This group has done significant work for peace and reconciliation on this island.