Senator John McGahon- speech from 15 Nov 2022

Thank you very much, Lasky Herlock Leader. I'd like to call for a debate today on cross-border tourism. The reason why I'm calling for that debate is because of the work that's been put forward by the SDLP in the Newry, Morne and Down region, in particular my good friend Cillian Feehan, who I met with last week. Cillian outlined the work that the SDLP are doing, which is in terms of advocating promoting the inclusion of Arma and County Down on Ireland's Ancient East. They had a unanimous motion passed by all political parties, including the DUP, two weeks ago at Newry, Morne and District Council. All parties and all politicians at the local level, at a council level, are in agreement and would love to see Arma and Down added on to Ireland's Ancient East. I think it is very important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it ensures that it considerably enhances the tourism opportunities for both sides of the border. So what often happens when we see with tourism in a certain sense, you get to the edge of Dundalk or County Louth and that kind of drops off a cliff. So you see that where we have an excellent thing with sea tourism, Louth, where we have a loud seafood trail, we should be trying to expand that across Carlingford Lock into County Down. The same way we're doing this now by the inclusion of Arma and County Down on to Ireland's Ancient East. So I think it is a really important thing to always include two sides of the border. The world doesn't end when it comes to tourism. And we see huge amounts of increased tourism when it comes to greenways, blueways. And I think having two counties from the north included on Ireland's Ancient East would be a really productive and positive step. And that's why I'd like to have a debate about that. I know there are discussions with Tourism Ireland and the Northern Irish Tourism Board about it. But the fact that there's local buy-in from all political parties is really positive. I know there's certainly buy-in from political parties on my side of the border. And I would really appreciate a debate about the wider aspects of cross-border tourism and how it can really continue to foster and bring economic prosperity to both sides of it. That's what it has to be. It's about bringing economic prosperity to both sides of the region and in particular the Dundalk, North Louth, South Armagh, County Down region. And I would really appreciate a debate on that at some stage in the future. Thank you very much indeed.