Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will bring the exact proposal to the attention of the Taoiseach and he will be watching this closely today. I will also bring it to the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach. Expanding the North-South school exchange programme is a crucial part of the programme for government commitments on a shared island. We need to bring young people together.

The Senator mentioned that I was an education spokesperson. Quite frankly, the number of educational movements North and South is not as high as we would think. Half of my class in college was from the North, as was the case in two other classes in Trinity College Dublin at that time. I was always of the impression that the number was huge because it was in my direct experience but then I found out when I was education spokesperson that it was not. We do have to address this and get more movement North and South, particularly in higher and further education. This would lead to significant benefits for everybody, for young people, for reconciliation and for the island.