Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question and recognise his obvious interest and commitment to this issue as a Border Deputy and a long-serving Member of the House. I strongly believe, as does the Government, that there is significant potential for enhanced North-South collaboration throughout the further and higher education and research system. This is an issue to which I have attached high priority. I have had many meetings about it with counterparts in Northern Ireland, the Social and Democratic Labour Party, SDLP, Deputy Conway-Walsh and the British ambassador. It is an issue on which we need to make much progress because such co-operation can help us better understand people and communities, as well as resulting in benefits to education and research.

This week, the Taoiseach and I launched a dedicated North-South research programme, which will provide a €40 million fund for research collaboration as part of the shared island initiative. I sincerely thank the Taoiseach for this work, which is funded through the shared island unit in his Department, and for his personal commitment to this. The initiative will be managed by the Higher Education Authority on behalf of my Department and will support collaboration among individual researchers, research teams and institutions North and South. The requirement for taking part is that involves somebody in the North and somebody in the Republic. This will no doubt help research but will also help build those relationships.

My Department is also committed to working collaboratively to ensure the delivery of the commitments made in New Decade, New Approach. This includes supporting the development of all-island research hubs, as well as facilitating close collaboration between education providers, including potential capital investment in Magee College, a matter I might return to in my follow-up reply. We need concrete proposals because the Irish and British Governments both gave solemn commitments under New Decade, New Approach to the development of Magee College and I want to deliver on that.

Officials from my Department are also working closely with colleagues in the Department for the Economy in the North on the development of a cross-Border skills initiative. For the first time, Ireland has included a skills initiative on a cross-Border basis in the forthcoming PEACE PLUS programme, which will offer further opportunities in both the further and the higher education spaces.

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