Keaveney welcomes re-affirmation of North South initiatives at NSMC

Donegal Senator Cecilia Keaveney has welcomed the re-affirmation of a number of North/South commitments at a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council in Dublin today.

The meeting was attended by the Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD First Minister, Peter Robinson MLA, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA.

“I am glad that, as Ministers in both jurisdictions face a time of tough fiscal challenges, they took this time to stand together and reaffirm commitments that have been made to projects that will benefit the whole island of Ireland,” Senator Keaveney said.

“While we have seen huge improvements in the M1 and N2, work is progressing on the important A5 Aughnacloy to Derry road and the A1 works to complete the Dublin Belfast link are nearing completion. All these assists road users gain a better access to the North West.”

“Proposals for a new radiotherapy centre at Altnagelvin Hospital were also discussed and the Irish Government has agreed, in principal, to provide a capital contribution and to fund the provision of cancer services for patients from Donegal. This is significant for delivering health services locally in the North West.”

“A range of child protection issues including the establishment of the innovative North-South Child Protection website was also discussed. Given our border location this co-operation is vital to counties such as Donegal. “

“These meetings between leaders from both jurisdictions are very important. Fianna Fáil in Government has established very good and effective working relationships with their contemporaries in the North and there is no doubt that the people of Donegal will benefit from this work.”

“I recently heard Fine Gael’s Michael Ring berate the allocation of such significant funding to projects in the North. I was appalled, but not surprised at his lack of vision for the development of our all island economy. He is not the only FG member reluctant to see, for example, the investment in Derry City Airport whose clients are almost fifty percent from Donegal. This has been a vital piece of infrastructure for us.”

“Fianna Fáil in Government has allocated significant amounts of money, hundreds of millions, to projects in the North, but the whole island benefit from this collaborative approach to our all-island economy and I for one am fully supportive of the work which has already been done, and that which was reaffirmed at the meeting of the North South Ministerial Council today. “

“I am already assured that issues such as the All Ireland mobile phone package which I raised recently will be on the table for the next meeting in the Autumn,” concluded Senator Cecilia Keaveney.