Ms Aingeal O?Donoghue:

The committee will be familiar with the shared island initiative which the Taoiseach launched, our commitments under the programme for Government and the extent to which the initiative is underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. I will flag a few issues, the first of which is the significance of the shared island chapter of the revised national development plan, NDP. It is a significant statement of intent and ambition for what we want to achieve for the next ten years backed by significant resources. In total, there is €3.5 billion going into all-island co-operation. The impact of the NDP in terms of opportunities on the island for business and employment - for example, the way we will need to look at skills on the island - is also significant. I would draw attention to that in the first instance.

In terms of ongoing work, I would flag two significant shared island fund announcements which have been made since we briefed the committee in May of last year. The Chair has mentioned the Narrow Water Bridge project to us on many occasions. There is funding of €3 million to effectively bring the project, which, as we all know, has had many iterations and stallings, up to tender stage. This will create a significant impact in the region. There was a good meeting between the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Northern Ireland Minister of Infrastructure, Ms Nichola Mallon MLA, up at Narrow Water with stakeholders. There is much excitement now about the project. Louth County Council is working with Newry and Mourne District Council. They are committed to taking it forward. It will be flanked by a range of green and active leisure dimensions as well.

The other big significant announcement was the launch of the North-South research programme with higher education institutions. I am happy to talk about it. In practical terms, the first call for proposals is open until 8 November. It is run by the Higher Education Authority, HEA. There has been huge interest in it. When the Taoiseach was in Belfast, he met with researchers in Queen's University who were energised by the opportunities it gives. Mr. Duffy and I visited Derry recently and there was the same message from Magee and from Letterkenny. It will be a significant project.

I would like to flag up the significant programme of research that is ongoing. We will see from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, a particularly significant report coming out at the end of the year. We will also see a report from the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, early next year. It has already done some very interesting reports on climate and biodiversity.

In terms of our dialogue and engagement, there is a continuing programme of shared island dialogues. The most recent ones since we last met were on the economy, health and education provision. Over 1,000 people have now participated in these dialogues from all parts of the island and from right across both communities, in the sense in which it is traditionally used in Northern Ireland but also in the broader sense of minority groups, different interest groups and actively engaged groups that are focused more on environment or health than the politics on the island. It is positive.

We are doing a lot of thinking about what the next phase of those dialogues needs to be. We would be keen to hear ideas and suggestions from the committee. Obviously, meeting in person is something we want to get back to. We want to have meetings in different regions around the country. Having been through this first phase, we are also now looking at ways in which we can have more direct political engagement in the dialogues.

I wanted to give those quick few summary words so that everyone has the same context as we go into the questions and answers.