Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Marshall in the context of bringing the particular group of women to the House but I would also extend the invitation to other groups over a period. It would not be realistic to have them all at one time but I would like to think that, over a period, all of the groups we met could come before the House. I thank Senator Marshall for the kind remarks he made about my input to the all-day meeting in Belfast of our Brexit committee. We all thrive on affirmation.

No matter how Brexit goes, we will be left living on this island together as a community, North and South. This is why I want our debate on Northern Ireland to centre on how we can continue co-operation in the area of health. There is no reason not to have specialties in the various hospitals on the Border and interplay between them. There is no reason we could not have heightened co-operation in the area of education, such as exchange programmes. There is no reason we could not continue to co-operate on economic grounds, irrespective of what type of Brexit occurs. We must think about living beyond Brexit and the fact we will be here together afterwards.

I want to make a specific proposal that is relevant to the State and the Government. I propose that when people apply for a sports capital grant, CLÁR grant or various forms of community funding, one aspect of the application that should get points weighting for approval is evidence of interchange with Northern Ireland. There should be evidence that a sports club has played at least a couple of challenge matches against teams from Northern Ireland. There should be evidence that a community group has links to Northern Ireland. This would be an acutely heightened necessity in Border regions but why should it not extend throughout the island? I want the Leader to convey to the various Ministers, including Deputies Ring and Griffin, who are responsible for these grants, that we adjust the grants and make a link to Northern Ireland a prerequisite. If we do not build human interaction, mutual understanding and real interpersonal communication, any abstract discussion on unity will remain abstract.We must build relationships. There are two ways to do this, by initiative and by making it a prerequisite to get State funding.