Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)

Some questions have been raised on the shared island fund. It is very much welcome, particularly North of the Border, in a set of circumstances where there is vastly insufficient funding to cover basic public services. Even though it is used for a different purpose, the injection of support has been very welcome. The Taoiseach spoke about the possibility of an assessment of its effectiveness to date. Like the Taoiseach I have been to the Narrow Water Bridge many times, tracking its progress. This project will have a significant positive impact for the tourism potential of the Carlingford Lough area, the Cooley Peninsula, the Mourne Mountains and even Slieve Gullion in south Armagh, which I must add in.

Is there an opportunity in the review, and I am not diminishing in any sense the funding for heritage, civil society, arts and culture, which are all very important, as is nature-led restoration, but is there an opportunity to have a more hard-nosed strategic approach in it? The Taoiseach mentioned, when responding earlier to either Deputy McGreehan or Deputy Timmins, work with universities and training. The all-Ireland economy has continued to grow, perhaps with not an awful lot of nurture, certainly North of the Border, until recent years. Is there an opportunity to use shared island funding in a way that benefits economic growth throughout the island and allows for the development of clustering? This would feed into what the Taoiseach said earlier about economic uncertainties. Having more clustering on the island and more diversity in terms of the economy throughout the island would, perhaps, slightly better insulate us from some of the economic shocks that might come through the tariff discussions and other issues.

Is there a way to use the funding more strategically? It is great to contribute to schools and to bring people together for reconciliation but there are actually barriers to people availing of educational opportunities across the island. There are barriers to people availing of training opportunities across the island. In terms of the review, is there is a sense that a more strategic focus would bring longer term benefits? I am not in any way diminishing its benefits to date but are there measures that would contribute in the longer term to other parts of the Taoiseach's prioritisation in terms of economic growth, prosperity, sustainability and diversity of the economy across the island?