Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. In answer to her first question, we do not see any risks to the funding commitment that has been put in place in relation to the ongoing discussions between the UK and the EU. Obviously, we are monitoring the situation on an ongoing basis but the funding commitment has been provided by the UK Treasury. The EU funding is certainly secure as part of the overall EU budget and we are now in a position to proceed with the formal application. There is certainly no suggestion at any point of any party to PEACEPLUS resiling from the funding commitments that have been made.

On the second question on the specific types of projects, we can get a flavour of it by looking at the projects that were funded under the current PEACE programme and the INTERREG VA programme as well. That will give us an indication but of course we have not made any decisions yet about any specific projects because we are not yet at the formal application stage. If we look at the six themes that are there we see young people will be a key theme, including supporting youth projects in the Border counties and in Northern Ireland to empower and invest in young people. That can take various forms. I would like to see as much of it as possible being led by the community. We see the projects that involve young people directly, providing services to them and providing facilities to them funded under this programme, as being of great potential. There is the whole area of economic regeneration and transformation. Again, there are similarities there with the Shared Island fund. We will see projects that work towards that objective. Of course, the cross-community work will always be centre stage in a peace programme because at its heart this is about reconciliation and ensuring peace is deeply embedded by building relationships on a cross-community basis. It is about bringing people together from all strands of life in Northern Ireland and the Border counties. It might be through a project that is socially-based, based on sport, based on community or economic regeneration or involving young people through the education system. It is about bringing people together to develop a better understanding of each other, where we come from and our respective communities in all their diversity. That will really be the essence of PEACEPLUS. I am sure there will be many projects that are very much consistent with those goals.