Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

Shared Island Initiative: Department of the Taoiseach

2:00 am

Mr. Eoghan Duffy:

That connection between dialogue, research and the investment and co-operation agenda is really fundamental to how the work is being progressed. To give an example on education, there was a dialogue held with the Minister for education at the time on where the opportunities would be to do more in the sector in 2021. That was followed up by a piece of research by the ESRI that we commissioned in 2022 which looked at education outcomes across all levels of education, North and South. That fed into discussions between the two education Departments on where they could practically do more, which in 2024 resulted in what is called the shared island education scheme, which involves three areas of co-operation between the two education Departments. That was approved by Ministers North and South and was noted and welcomed at the North-South Ministerial Council and now that programme is under way. To get that connection between stakeholder engagement, underpinning of research and then a political decision to co-operate significantly in new areas is-----