Mr. Matt Carthy:

We must acknowledge there is substantial support for the maintenance of the PEACE programme at European level, particularly in the European Parliament. One of the first resolutions regarding Ireland to be adopted after the Brexit vote was an amendment proposed by my colleague Liadh Ní Riada, MEP, to a budget file in respect of the multi-annual financial framework. It was a statement of intent to protect PEACE funding in the post-Brexit scenario. This clear and definitive statement on the part of the European Parliament happened within a couple of months of the Brexit vote, at a time when it was refusing to make clear and definitive statements on almost any other aspect of Brexit. We have tried to capitalise on that. We have met Michel Barnier and all the key negotiating figures at European level. All of them have indicated that this is the case. The problem in a worst-case Brexit scenario is that in order for PEACE to happen, we will need the British Government to pony up the money and agree to the structure that is in place. At the moment, there is a special EU programmes body, the role of which is to roll out this funding. There will need to be another body that is not simply an EU body so that the British Government will be able to tie into it. One of the successes of the PEACE programme has been the value of the engagement with it by all communities on both sides of the Border. People might not like every decision that is made by the special EU programmes body.

They might not like where all of the funding has been allocated. Those who submit applications will always think they are good and that they deserve more but they have always considered the scheme to be administered by a politically neutral body in terms of how decisions are made. There is a fear - it is one I share - that we have not adopted a strong position on the PEACE programme. The Minister must strongly emphasise that whatever body is put in place to distribute funding is politically neutral. I assume and hope that we can take everybody at their word that they will remain committed to that goal. We just need to be very focused about this matter.

The issue of broader INTERREG funding is more worrying from my point of view because there is not the same commitment. In that instance and, again, dealing with the worst-case Brexit scenario, the more optimum cases or even Britain remaining in the Single Market and the customs union, there is no guarantee that Britain would remain part of the INTERREG programme. In some cases, it is the INTERREG programme as opposed to PEACE funding specifically that has delivered some of the major infrastructural projects, whether it be transport projects or other infrastructural developments, on a cross-Border basis. In that context, we probably have not - I say this collectively in terms of the Government and all representatives - had an opportunity to put the amount of time and detailed work into formulating an Irish position that we can articulate. There will be openness at European level. When one talks to British representatives, it depends on who one speaks to and what day of the week it is in the context of figuring out the British Government's position on anything Brexit-related. The Senator is quite right in what she said. I cannot imagine what my community in County Monaghan and communities in many other Border counties would look like today were it not for the provision of PEACE and INTERREG funding over the past number of decades.