Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. From my initial observation, every time the shared island unit is mentioned it is almost like Santa's wish list. There are a lot of organisations and groups that would like to access the funding and want to know where to go. Ms Deane has explained that very well in terms of the umbrella, the overarching body of the unit and then the subsequent funding agencies or organisations. It is very clear.

If I could take up where the opening remarks left off, on the shared home place programme, I am very excited by the arts and culture piece and the funding going into that. The celebration and acknowledgement of our shared cultural and heritage past needs to be homed in on. It is welcome that this was highlighted in the remarks to the committee today. There was mention of deepening collaboration on healthcare systems on the island. Our guests will be aware that between now and Christmas, this committee will focus on healthcare. The work of the committee will ultimately lead to a report, which we will share with the officials. I hope there will be potential for co-operation and collaboration, which was discussed earlier.

For my own piece, the Belfast to Dublin service which began last October has been really beneficial in supporting arts and culture as well as the economies of Belfast and Dublin. It has been a real game-changer. It is partly through the shared island funding and the national development plan. One thing that has come across my desk is the need for it to go longer and later into the day. That illustrates the success of the service, as I think Deputy Maxwell said earlier. The ability to extend those services to later in the day would be something the officials might take back to their Department. If they have any statistics on its success, they would be very welcome.

On the civic society fund, the officials said there is €6 million allocated to it up to 2027 and €2 million has been spent. That is very welcome. For organisations and groups that wish to partake in that civic society funding, particularly new ones who have not engaged before, and this is something for us down South particularly, initially at the outset of the agreement there was a lot of hurry and focus on trying to get groups North and South together, which is wonderful. I would hope to say that it is now more organic than arranged. However, I still think there are groups that would benefit from that co-operation North and South. How does one engage and what are the criteria? I hear what our guests are saying about the focus on women's and girls' groups, which is really important. I think Deputy Moynihan referred to sporting groups. For all the various societal groups that exist, particularly non-political ones, how is that done? Is there an application deadline? Could we have an outline of that? In terms of additionality and to avoid duplication, where shared island unit funding is involved, how do we avoid duplication of funding by PEACEPLUS, the UK or the Northern Ireland Executive? What test is applied to ensure there is no duplication? Maybe that is the North-South Ministerial Council, I am not sure. Is the data around the civic society funding generally available?

I asked some parliamentary questions on this a couple of months ago. Is data freely available and is it published?

Skills, apprenticeships and further education opportunities were referred to earlier by Deputy Moynihan. What other funding exists or through what channel would the funding come to ensure there is greater collaboration? I raised this at a different forum recently. We should look at the likes of the guilds and other opportunities for apprenticeships to gain practical work, North and South. Is there any involvement from the shared island unit on that? That is a lot of questions for Ms Deane, but it will be no bother to her.