Ms Émer Deane:

I thank the Deputy. In terms of research, there is no equivalent to the ESRI in Northern Ireland. However, in all the research that we do with the ESRI, it has northern partnerships. Researchers or institutions in the North will always be involved in each piece of research.

The Deputy mentioned the all-island labour market, which is very important. There was a cross-Border conference on this last week. We are very aware of the issues around this in terms of information, taxation and all of the other obstacles. He also referred to the skills part. Skills and developing the all-island labour market is a focus of the EU PEACE funding, and very significant funding was announced recently in that regard. It will begin to be rolled out in 2026. In addition, the Labour Employer Economic Forum, which the Taoiseach chairs, also has a shared island subgroup that looks specifically at the all-island labour market and trying to work through those knotty issues.

I mentioned that we are in a better dispensation in terms of our relations with the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. These kind of taxation issues really are bilateral issues where you need to have that co-operation and interest on the other side to find a resolution that works for people moving in both directions.

On sport, it is important to note that our all-island sporting environment is incredibly healthy, as the Deputy said. Some of what we want to do is look at how we can leverage some of the all-island sports and events to create greater connections across the island. At the same time, we do not want to displace any funding that sport has. From the shared island unit perspective, it is always about additionality and looking at what can we do that the sporting bodies would not be doing if it was not for us. The one sporting project we have at the moment is Casement Park. We are just waiting for the go-ahead from the Northern Ireland Executive and the GAA on that.

The Deputy mentioned the civic forum, which the Northern Ireland Executive has confirmed it will establish.

This is obviously welcome as it was also a commitment in the programme for Government to see that happen. On that, what we have been moving towards with the civic society fund is trying to have more strategic partnerships between civic society groups in the South and in the North. For instance, the National Women's Council now has an all-island women's council where it is working together, which it would not have been able to do without shared island funding. That is the kind of model, to bring those umbrella groups operating in this jurisdiction and encourage and support partnerships with entities in the North.

Mr. Duffy may wish to comment on the dialogue and how that fed into our work on the research and other programme areas.