Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the two Deputies for raising this issue. Given where they are situated, I know how important this is to them and the concerns they have. I assure them we are not planning to fail on this. The potential impact of Brexit and the importance of avoiding a hard border to the people living in all the Border communities cannot be underestimated and the Government has been acutely aware of this from the beginning of the negotiations. As the Deputies know, in recent decades, businesses, communities, lives and livelihoods have developed and prospered, although maybe not as much as in the rest of the country. People cross the Border with ease every day to work, study, visit family members and connect with their local communities.

North-South co-operation, both formal and informal, is a practical outworking of the peace process which allows for the normalisation of relationships between people across the island to mutual benefit. We have seen the range of areas of co-operation on the list of topics discussed during the mapping exercise, which the United Kingdom published on 7 December. The European Union will publish a similar document in the coming weeks.

For reasons of peace, prosperity and partnership, the Government has maintained the policy that the invisible Border on this island must remain just that - invisible. It must remain open and free of any physical infrastructure or associated checks and controls. I have accompanied European ministers on visits to the Border region and briefed them, and many others, on the absolute need to maintain the current arrangements which have been so important to many communities, as both of the Deputies have outlined. This includes the supports available for peace and reconciliation, as well as for the challenges that face the economies of the towns and villages in the Border region.

The agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, which has been endorsed by the European Council, and the political declaration on the future relationship represent a fair and balanced deal. The agreement delivers on the shared objective of providing an absolute guarantee that a Border will be avoided, while making crystal clear that nothing in it will prejudice the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the principle of consent as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. There are also important provisions on protecting North-South co-operation.

The agreement also recalls - this is of most importance in respect of the Deputies' questions - the commitment of the EU and the UK to the current PEACE and INTERREG funding programmes and to a new PEACE+ programme which will build on and continue the work of both PEACE and INTERREG. This has not been agreed only recently but goes back as far as the EU-UK joint report of December 2017, which stated that both parties would honour their commitment to the current PEACE and INTERREG programmes and that the possibilities for future support would have to be considered and examined favourably.

The EU-funded INTERREG and PEACE programmes continue to act as important drivers of regional development for the Border regions of Ireland and Northern Ireland. INTERREG programmes, which are funded by the EU, exist to address the challenges encountered by the Border regions, many of which the Deputies alluded to. In the case of Ireland, an additional and unique programme, PEACE, addresses the challenges in the regions arising specifically from the conflict. I had the pleasure of recently visiting Belfast to meet Ms Gina McIntyre and her team who work with the special EU programmes body, SEUPB. I also met groups that receive funding from both the PEACE and INTERREG programmes. The positive impact is visible and real for those who receive funding, including young people whom I met whose families are still impacted by the Troubles, students working in Ulster University on various cross-Border programmes and groups working together to tackle racism.

Since the UK referendum on membership of the European Union, the Government's clear and consistent position has been that it is committed to the successful implementation of the current programmes and, most important, to a successor programme. To this end, we have been working extremely closely with the European Commission at all levels to ensure this important source of funding for the Border region continues post-Brexit. I am pleased the Government's ambition for the programme was reflected in the withdrawal agreement. We will continue to work to ensure these commitments are fulfilled.

We will also continue to work to ensure Border communities are supported to prepare for Brexit. For this reason, two of the six Getting Ireland Brexit Ready events of recent months were held in the Border region, in Monaghan and Letterkenny. We want to work with these Border communities to prepare them for Brexit, making sure that programmes in the future, such as PEACE+ and INTERREG, will not just receive continued funding but, hopefully, increased funding as well.

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