Ms Gina McIntyre:

I thank the committee for the invitation to be here. It is a great pleasure to be here to talk about the implementation of PEACEPLUS.

PEACEPLUS is a cross-Border funding programme designed to promote peace and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the Border counties of Ireland. This year represents a significant milestone for the SEUPB as we celebrate our 25th anniversary with the largest funding programme in our history. Over the last 25 years, the SEUPB has managed a number of EU investment programmes, including the PEACE and INTERREG programmes. Through these initiatives the EU, alongside the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Executive, has helped to support the peace progress in Northern Ireland and the six Border counties. The €3.39 billion invested through previous programmes has funded more than 23,000 projects and touched the lives of more than 2 million citizens.

We are working on the closure of the current PEACE IV and INTERREG VA programmes. All activities for those projects ceased on 31 December 2023. Eight projects are yet to fully conclude. These are mainly capital building projects that were delayed significantly due to the impact of Covid-19. They have a programme of activity to complete in 2024, which they are undertaking at their own expense as the funding programme has ceased. We are working on the administrative closure of all other projects with a view to maximising the reimbursement of EU receipts from the programmes.

The PEACEPLUS programme will continue to provide this vital support to Northern Ireland and the Border counties, with an investment of €1.14 billion. This spending will focus on embedding peace and promoting prosperity across the region. This investment is vital because building a peaceful society must go hand in hand with building a prosperous society, one that is addressing the challenges of today and looking towards the future and a society that gives all its citizens a stake in that future.

The focus of PEACEPLUS is broad and ambitious. The programme will not only support established peacebuilding initiatives, such as reconciliation and relationship building, but also deliver outcomes across the whole of society through investment in our young people to improve their life opportunities; encouraging the social economy and entrepreneurship; developing community leadership; investment in the economy through support for research skills and life-long learning; investment in rural and Border communities through regeneration and re-imaging and access to services; creating iconic spaces in new and vibrant town centres and villages; supporting smart towns and villages; and supporting the health and well-being of our citizens with equality of access to services. There are also environment protection activities, transportation links actions, Covid recovery actions and mitigation of some of the impacts of Brexit that occur.

Everyone in the programme area has the potential to contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous society. Individual investment areas, therefore, have been designed to optimise engagement and participation across all ages, communities and sectors and thus ensure the maximum contribution to peace and reconciliation in the programme area. A small grants programme has been built into the thematic areas, which will see funding reach similar and smaller groups and organisations to deliver good relations impacts in and between communities and across the Border.

Each local authority has been given an allocation of funds based on deprivation and population statistics. They must submit a plan to outline how they will spend the funding and this plan must have demonstrable evidence of co-creation with the community.

The really hard-to-reach groups need to be given a voice and an opportunity. This has to be a home for everyone. It is well understood that over the past 25 years, the most badly impacted communities during the conflict and violence, which were also the most deprived, have seen the least improvement. PEACEPLUS will focus on ensuring that all communities, traditional and new, are respected.

A more innovative culture is being fostered across the programme area. There is an opportunity to build upon the positive cultural shift and to invest in high-level research and innovation initiatives and to facilitate commercially-driven partnerships involving the programme area's best researchers and companies of all scales. The SEUPB is encouraging applicants to look at new emerging technology and digital solutions. The programme will invest in our children and young people and in confidence building, skilling and supporting through peer groups. It will build on the current models of mental health support, which provide accessible, age-appropriate early intervention and recovery activities and which are delivered on a cross-community and cross-Border basis. This will result in an increased number of resilient young people with the level of capacity required to be in control of their own lives and to make a positive contribution within their communities.

PEACEPLUS will impact individuals' lives and has been designed to address specific areas of need such as outcomes focused on mental health and well-being. The persistent issues of cultural trauma and the cycle of past hurt are addressed by supporting activities to counter the trauma through art, music, storytelling and sport and by addressing hurt through discussion groups. Intergenerational trauma in this region is highly prevalent and this has been addressed at all sections of society. Citizens demonstrate high levels of trauma and unfortunately, you only have to look at the horrifically high rates of addiction, suicide and violence recorded to recognise it.

The PEACEPLUS programme will present an opportunity to develop a strength-based model that will enable and empower rural communities to reach their full potential. An investment will contribute to the creation of thriving rural communities, thereby delivering significant social, economic and environmental benefits. Protection of our natural environment will be supported. As biodiversity is the variety of life and is crucial to human life, we are supporting activities in that range. We are also looking at the marine area, which comprises all marine waters, including seabeds, subsoils, sea loughs and tidal rivers. In addition to economic benefits, the marine and coastal environment provides important societal benefits through the ecosystem, including waste assimilation, coastal defence, carbon absorption, recreational heritage, fisheries and aquaculture.

There is an opportunity to address the legal and administrative obstacles associated with the Border and there is a high level of interest from administrations, statutory agencies and organisations in how they can address some of the specific challenges and build networks with a purpose for the future. Applicants from outside the area can also become involved in the programme. From all across the island of Ireland, they can partner with organisations within the programme, between the two islands, across Europe and globally. We are encouraging that; it is a wonderful opportunity for organisations that have a natural link in sectors to be involved in the programme projects.

The first round of the PEACEPLUS funding calls opened in June 2023 and since then, a total of nine thematic calls have opened for applications and I believe a tenth call is opening today. All the information and resources for making an application are available on our specifically designed support portal and additional information and guidance has been provided through a series of PEACEPLUS roadshows and workshop events. The first round of PEACEPLUS funding was announced on 12 December. The funding was awarded under investment area 3.2, empowering and investing in our young people, with a total of €45 million being awarded to six projects made up of partners from across the youth sector across Northern Ireland and the Border counties of Ireland. That will specifically support capacity building programmes for young people aged 14 to 24, who are disadvantaged, excluded or marginalised and who have deep social and emotional needs.

More funding announcements, in the region of approximately €50 million, are expected at the end of February and we have a schedule of funding calls throughout 2024. This timetable is available on our website and I would be happy to come back at any time the committee would like in the future, as more activity and more funding calls are rolled out. New calls are advertised extensively through both local and national press and online. We are also exploring the potential for complementarity, working with other large-scale funders, including the shared island unit, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the International Fund for Ireland, the city and growth deals and other Government Departments. We have had an initial workshop with all of those funders in 2023 and we will be progressing that next month as well, to consider various options for co-operation.

PEACEPLUS is an enormous challenge, not least in relation to the resources within the SEUPB. This is a programme that is now twice the size of what we currently have and we are also closing that programme. There is a gap developing between the size and the scale of this programme and the staffing resources we have within the organisation. Unfortunately, this is also heavily predicated on the existence of the North-South Ministerial Council to make decisions on our staffing. Although it is an enormous challenge, we are working through that and we certainly will do our best because we see this as a tremendous opportunity, which we are very grateful for, and we want to roll this out as successfully as we can, taking on lessons learned from the past programmes and ensuring that we are here to support the applicants to do the work that is so badly needed. We recognise there is a great deal of work to do, but we are excited by the prospect of seeing the enormous impact the programme will make. I thank the Cathaoirleach.