Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach's reference to his ongoing work, and that of the Tánaiste and the Government, to have the institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement, the Assembly, the Executive and the North South Ministerial Council, put back in place again. One welcome aspect of the work of the Department of the Taoiseach since 2020 has been the establishment of the shared island unit. As we know, the work of the unit is very much underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. Thankfully, in my constituency we have identified projects that meet the requirements of the shared island unit initiative for funding. Working with others and with many voluntary groups over the years, we identified projects on a cross-Border basis that had no readily identifiable parent Department that we could get funding from. I very much welcome this initiative. It is very important that it is driven forward as strongly as possible because people from all traditions on this island, who were critical initially when it was established, are now welcoming it. It is a project that should be referred to in all analysis and review of the Good Friday Agreement.

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