Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús báire gabhaim comhghairdeas agus gach dea-ghuí leis na Seanadóirí nua-tofa. I congratulate the two re-elected Senators, who are both close personal friends of mine for many a day.

It is incumbent on all of us, as well as being a pleasure, to try to build good interpersonal relationships north of the Border and, indeed, on an east-west basis.This needs to happen at ground level with people mixing across the Border in a very normal way. To achieve this, I believe that we should build in a condition to many of our State grants that there should be clear evidence of a reach across the Border. In the case of the sports capital grants, a considerable number of points should be allocated for evidence of a form of twinning with a similar club in Northern Ireland. In the case of CLÁR grants, points should be given for links with Northern Ireland. Town and village renewal grants should have a twinning or interlinked incentive and, similarly, rural regeneration grants.

I fully understand that physical travel to Northern Ireland would be more difficult the further away one is from the Border. However, we have recently discovered that distance is no obstacle to contact so we could mix and match. I ask the Acting Leader to bring my proposal to Government and arrange a debate. I ask for this because we will build unity in this country, and ultimately a united Ireland, by the bringing together of hearts of minds and building of interpersonal relationships. My practical proposals are implementable and could have a transformative effect in a very short time.