Ms ?mer Deane:

I thank the Chair and it is great to be back in the committee albeit in a different role. I welcome this opportunity to update the committee on implementation of the Government’s shared island initiative following on from my predecessors' attendance here in April of last year. As mentioned by the Chair, I am now assistant secretary in the Department of the Taoiseach with responsibility for the shared island unit. Many of the committee members will know Mr. Eoghan Duffy, the principal officer in that unit.

The shared island initiative is taken forward on a whole-of-government basis by Ministers and their Departments and agencies, working with Northern Ireland and UK counterparts. This work is driven and co-ordinated across Departments through the shared island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach. As the committee will be aware, on 20 February, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, announced a range of new funding allocations by the Government as part of the shared island initiative representing the largest ever package of Government funding for cross-Border investment. In making these announcements, the Taoiseach affirmed the Government’s commitment to work with the new Executive in Northern Ireland, and with the British Government, to deliver cross-Border investment co-operation that will make the island of Ireland a better place to live for all. This package of strategic investment coheres with the Government’s commitment to strand two of the Good Friday Agreement and to North-South co-operation more generally.

In many cases, as this committee will know, funding decisions by Government were in preparation for some time. Some of them reflect objectives set in the programme for Government and revised national development plan and some are commitments which go back right back to the 2020 New Decade, New Approach agreement. The commitments also reflect years of co-operation between successive Irish and British Governments and with the Northern Ireland Executive.

In summary, the Government announced funding commitments of more than €800 million comprised of: €600 million to the A5 north-west transport corridor, and advancing work in 2024 on the linked road projects: the N2 Clontibret to the Border and the Donegal TEN-T upgrades.

There were a range allocations from the shared island fund itself: to build the Narrow Water Bridge and to complete the Carlingford greenway; to contribute to the cost of re-construction of a redeveloped Casement Park in Belfast, including and in the context of the joint hosting with the UK of the 2028 UEFA European Football Championship; to introduce an hourly-frequency rail service between Belfast and Dublin before the end of this year; invest in a renewed visitor experience at the Battle of the Boyne site, which is a place of unique historic and community significance; to develop new co-operation schemes in the two areas, first in educational under-attainment and, second, the area of enterprise, including on female entrepreneurship; and also to move ahead with work to assist a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO world heritage status bid and development work for the trans-boundary astronomical observatories of Ireland sites.

These projects will now be taken forward by Ministers and their Departments in each sectoral area and in most cases working with Northern or UK counterparts.

More information on each of those projects has been provided to the committee in advance of today's meeting.

More substantial projects were progressed by the Government with the previous Northern Ireland Executive. There were the co-centres for research and innovation led by Science Foundation Ireland with institutional partners. These models are funded by the Irish Government, Northern Ireland Executive and British Government. Those two co-centres are now operational since January of this year. One is working in the area of climate, biodiversity and water, and the other in the area of sustainable food systems. Before this latest announcement the Government had previously allocated almost €250 million from the shared island fund to a range of programmes and projects. Some of the flagship projects include the teaching building at Ulster University in Derry and moving ahead with the Ulster Canal restoration.

We are now in a slightly different place, of course, with the return of the power-sharing executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly last month. That is hugely important for Northern Ireland and for what can be achieved under the Good Friday Agreement. It provides a hugely improved context for the Government as we take forward our work under the shared island initiative. As the Taoiseach said when he addressed the third shared island forum in Dublin Castle last month, the island has common challenges and we know what a number of these are, whether it is climate change, energy security or skills needs. It makes sense that as we face these we do it on a North-South or east-west basis where it makes more sense to do it in that way. The Government will now work with the new Northern Ireland Executive and through the North-South Ministerial Council, and with the British Government, to deepen investment and policy co-operation across key areas. The shared island initiative will continue to realise the potential of all-island investment co-operation to boost the all-island economy and to improve connections North and South.

Another part of our focus in the shared island initiative is about bringing people together. The Tánaiste and Minister Foreign Affairs introduced a new shared island civic fund last year. This is a €3 million fund operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs for civic groups. It is for them to form new North-South or east-west partnerships. Two funding rounds have taken place on this and a third one is planned for later this year. The Government has also made funding allocations in 2022 for the introduction of a shared island dimension to community climate action and the Creative Ireland programmes, and for bioeconomy projects. That is all under way. The bioeconomy call for proposals was announced just yesterday. The shared island allocations for five arts capital projects were announced in September and will be brought forward by An Comhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to provide new facilities for artistic exchange and audience engagement across the island in a range of areas including traditional music, writing and visual arts. There is long-standing and very important cross-Border interaction between local authorities. This has been supported through the shared island local authority development funding scheme. Over the past year, local authorities have been doing feasibility work on more than 20 proposals - I believe there are 23 proposals in now from local authorities - in areas around heritage, culture, tourism, enterprise, and climate action. Now that this work is completed by the local authorities the Department and agencies will examine those proposals and see which of them we can take to the next stage of development.

Alongside these cross-government investment and policy co-operation initiatives, the shared island unit also continues to take forward our programme of research and to foster our inclusive civic dialogue on a shared future for the island. The purpose of this research work is really about building an evidence base as well as civic interaction and consensus on the common concerns for the future of this island however it is constituted. The key elements of work in 2023 are set out in the annual report. The members have this so I will not go into detail at this point. The Economic and Social Research Institute presented to this committee last month and last year on the economic and social policy issues that they have examined as commissioned by the shared island unit. In 2023, this included research on housing supply factors, changing social and political attitudes, and student mobility. A report will be published next month on gender inequality and the labour market across the island. In all, 30 reports have been published to date through research partnerships with the ESRI, the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, the Irish Research Council, with the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South, and with other partners. Research on an all-island labour market is nearing completion. This was commissioned as part of the shared island working group of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. I am aware that this committees has also heard from the trade unions and from business representatives, including members of LEEF in recent months.

With regard to dialogue, last October the Tánaiste convened an event on accommodating national identities held at the Abbey Theatre, which a number of members of the committee attended. There was a wide-ranging discussion at that event on historical experiences and on the challenge now of how to accommodate an increasingly diverse national identity on the island of Ireland. The Cathaoirleach and other political representatives also attended a shared island dialogue on the education system, which was held last June. This was to focus on what a more ambitious approach to connecting communities through education might look like. There was also an event last year - since the last time we appeared before this committee - on media representation on the island. This was held in the convention centre in April. In total, more than 1,000 representatives attended shared island dialogues last year. Published reports, video summaries, press and social media dimensions form parts of all of those events.

Civic society dialogue is also going on in other places and supported through the fund. This includes the all-island women's forum which is being run by the National Women's Council and the i-Community hub, which is a co-operation between The Wheel and the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action. These are being supported through the civic fund. There is also a shared island youth forum, which started its work last September, with 80 young civic representatives aged 18 to 25 from across very diverse backgrounds. One of the members may have presented to this committee last month in a hearing with young representatives. As part of its work the shared island youth forum has been asked to consider the future of the island across a couple of themes: sustainability, opportunity, well-being, equality, culture, and identity. The forum will produce their statement on their vision and their values for the future of this shared island. That statement will be considered by the Government and launched in the autumn. Hopefully it will help contribute to the next iterations of our dialogue work.

The shared island unit will continue the dialogue and research programmes throughout this year to inform the development of the initiative in overall terms and with the focus on widening our interaction with people across all communities and traditions on this island. I thank the Chair and the committee members for their interest and am happy to take any questions.