Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Strand 1A is open to community, voluntary and non-profit groups that want to take part. They have to partner with a local authority. As the Deputy said, there are cross-Border projects and there have been successful connections. While the senior levels of the political system in Northern Ireland may be stuck, at local authority level we are making progress. At official level we try to establish every contact we can make so that we can continue to work with Northern organisations.

A lot of this is related to agriculture. There is a lot of fruit and vegetable farming in the Deputy's constituency of Fingal. There will be many opportunities in those areas for sustainable and organic farming, reducing food waste and a circular economy, which involves taking things that were waste products that had to be paid for and ensuring they become useful inputs for businesses.

See this speech in context