Mr. Mark Durkan:

I thank the Minister for his statement. There must be serious work going on with officials, the EU programmes bodies, the Department and the INTERREG panels to deal with this last orders situation which has been created by the UK Chancellor’s commitment. I also acknowledge that while some other people went for headline assurances on the back of the Chancellor’s statement, the Minister, Mr. Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, made a clear mind-the-gap statement about what was not covered and that people should be aware of that risk. I recognise he is in the difficult position of trying to optimise what is supposedly there with the Treasury’s offer in circumstances where he may not get the optimum spend and use out of the money and that he is dealing with constraints he did not create himself. I picked up his warning that he needs the assistance and efforts of others to ensure it is optimised in so far as that window is concerned.

For the longer term, does the Minister think it is feasible to get to a situation where the North can still continue to have access to benefits and programmes of the EU, even in the context of Brexit, given the North’s unique position under the Good Friday Agreement as an international agreement? Could we have a lean-to arrangement with the South in that context? In terms of access to EU funding, if some of the principle was around the question of matched funding, could we look at the possibility of specifically earmarking those moneys, due to be paid by the Irish Government to the UK Government in respect of what is called the “Osborne loan”, to support North-South spending? Could they be used to supplement, complement or provide continuity of funding in respect of EU programmes? If it is not possible to use it as the matching funding, could it be used at least to ensure there was some continuity funding in respect of the sort of programmes and measures which are already supported by the EU?

It would be entirely consistent with the spirit of the Agreement if the funding was used in that way. That is what people envisaged was going to happen over time not just here, but among those who agreed these measures in the EU and their projected time cycle. It would also provide a basis for underpinning future North-South work, even beyond that directly funded by the EU programmes.

The reality is that much of the functionality that has come from the implementation bodies and from the North-South sectors has related to EU programmes and measures and has relied in large part on EU funding or on agreeing how to transpose EU standards. The reality is that the fillings of the North-South sandwich after this are going to be small. Many people are seeing aspects of the Good Friday Agreement being hollowed out. We need to think creatively in that funding area by not just replacing the headline funds to which the Minister referred, but in supporting the fact there is real and meaningful North-South traffic.