Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Senator takes my advice. It is bizarre that people are so Dublin-centric and that people in that part of Ireland so rarely visit Belfast or Derry or want to go North. There has to be something to change that pulling downwards. That needs looking at in imaginative ways. It cannot be right that is the case. Even on something as simple as the use of Belfast International Airport, the number of people in my area who use that airport is very small even though it takes the same time to get there as to get to Dublin Airport. Issues like that matter in the context of ordinary contact and ordinary trust. We have to look at all of those things.

I will leave it at that. It is important that we reaffirm our faith in the Good Friday Agreement. We hope that the Windsor agreement is taken on board by all parties, that we return to normal government and that we can build up relationships that will ultimately lead to the union of hearts and minds across the island.