Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 12, inclusive, together.

Through the Government's Shared Island initiative, we are engaging with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future and to deliver tangible benefits for the whole island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. The Shared Island dialogue series is a key part of our approach, bringing together more than 1,300 civic leaders so far from across all communities, traditions and regions to discuss how we can work for a shared future on this island in practical and meaningful ways.

Nine Shared Island dialogues have been convened to date, including on tourism and sport this year. Most recently, a dialogue was convened on 24 February by the Minister of State with responsibility for sport, Deputy Jack Chambers, at the Sport Ireland campus. This brought together over 120 stakeholders to discuss the role that sport plays in building trust and understanding across communities, and how we can enhance sports co-operation on the island.

Dialogues will be held throughout this year, now on an in-person and regional basis, focusing both on sectoral issues and wider societal concerns for the whole island. The next dialogue will be convened by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, on "enabling rural and community development on a shared island" on 20 May in Monaghan.

I have participated recently in a number of civil society-led dialogues on Shared Island themes, including at the John and Pat Hume Foundation in Derry and at an event with Queen's University. Last Thursday, I spoke at the launch of a new Shared Island conversation series of the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, that will focus on "building inclusive prosperity based on social and economic equality". I also look forward to meeting with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement this Thursday to discuss the Government's Shared Island initiative.

The initiative is also leading to exciting new civil society projects, including the All-Island Women's Forum, bringing women together from across the island to further develop women's role in peacebuilding and civil society and to address under-representation of women. The President addressed the first in-person meeting of the forum in Enniskillen in February and I look forward to engaging with its work as it develops over this year.

On 12 April, I participated in the launch event in Dublin Castle for a major report to the Government by the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, on Shared Island: Shared Opportunity. Following broad-based consultation across the island over the past year, NESC has made a series of recommendations on how we can deepen beneficial co-operation across the island in economic, social and environmental terms. It found very significant support in practice for all-island approaches to key challenges.

The council's recommendations will be positively considered by Government Departments and we will consult and seek to take forward agreed recommendations with our partners in the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK Government. Finally, the Government is continuing to work to deliver beneficial North-South co-operation and investment as a key part of our Shared Island initiative, including, most recently, on 2 March, when I and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science announced over €37 million in awards to 62 projects by the Higher Education Authority, under the Government's major North-South research programme, resourced through the Shared Island fund. On 1 April, in a meeting with the North West Regional Development Group in Derry, I announced a new €5 million shared island development funding scheme, open to local authorities across the island. This scheme will support the development of a pipeline of new projects by cross-Border local authority partnerships to deliver on agreed regional development goals and the Shared Island dimension of the national development plan, NDP. The Government will also continue to engage with the Northern Ireland Executive and the UK Government to seek to take forward collaborative investments, implementing our goal under the revised NDP to invest for a more connected, sustainable and prosperous island for all.

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