Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to have an opportunity to speak on recent developments in Northern Ireland and the opportunities that now arise for more collaboration, cross-Border trade and political co-operation on many levels. The restoration of the assembly and the executive is an extremely welcome development for Northern Ireland but also for the island as a whole and for British-Irish relations. We are ready to engage constructively with the executive to assist each other and work together in areas where North-South co-operation can make a positive difference for people North and South and for people living in Border areas.

Last week, I met the Northern Irish Minister for the Economy, Conor Murphy, at the offices of InterTradeIreland in Newry. Believe it or not, this was the first time in 22 years that Ministers from both jurisdictions, North and South, were present in those offices at the same time. This sends a strong signal that both Ireland and Northern Ireland are ready to continue our hard work towards developing a stronger, more resilient and more sustainable all-island economy. The response we got from the InterTradeIreland team could not have been more positive. It is an organisation that, in many ways, has been managing and surviving over recent years without direct political intervention, participation and direction. Considering the political realities, InterTradeIreland has done an extraordinary job in recent years. It has helped more than 50,000 businesses. Its initiatives have been responsible for thousands of extra jobs. It also helped a great many businesses through the complexity of the Brexit years.

Our meeting was productive and allowed us to discuss our respective remits and explore areas of potential collaboration. This collaboration is only natural, particularly as the value of cross-Border trade now stands at more than €9 billion. To put that into context, it is almost a threefold increase since the Good Friday Agreement just over 25 years ago. The growth in trade and development of an integrated all-island economy is one of the key dividends from the peace process. This is something that has come from more than 25 years of close collaboration between North and South and that I am confident we will continue to grow and develop between our respective Departments in the years ahead.

Northern Ireland now has a unique economic opportunity. Positioned as it is with access to both the UK's internal market and the EU's Single Market, it is in a unique position and has a unique opportunity. In many ways, the challenges of Brexit for Northern Ireland have been the source of polarisation and division over recent years. They have had a corrosive impact on relationships within politics on this island and between these islands. However, we can now look ahead to the opportunities the changes Brexit has brought about can deliver for business and investment in Northern Ireland. The Government wants to help Northern Ireland realise these opportunities in the spirit of collaboration and partnership that underpins the Good Friday Agreement. It is through working together that we have been able to transform the peace that we have built on this island into prosperity for people and businesses in both jurisdictions but there is a lot more work still to do.

The Minister, Conor Murphy, and I also had an opportunity to talk to the team in InterTradeIreland, the North-South body responsible for trade and business development, which is jointly funded by my Department and his. Given its nature as a North-South body, InterTradeIreland is best placed to help businesses on the island adapt to the new trading environment and harness the opportunities that exist. It does this through its many supports, including its cross-Border trade hub, which provides businesses with invaluable and tailored advice to help them trade on an all-island basis.

InterTradeIreland also highlighted to us its challenges as an organisation. As I said earlier, it has faced these impressively despite the lack of a fully functioning North South Ministerial Council, NMSC, which is required even to refresh the membership of InterTradeIreland's board or to make financial and funding decisions. As the council has been unable to meet for two years, there are a number of important decisions that must be taken in respect of the North-South bodies, including InterTradeIreland. These decisions can only be taken by the council. I, therefore, look forward to the early resumption of meetings of the NSMC, which will allow the Minister, Conor Murphy, me and others at those meetings to discuss in detail how we can continue to support the work of InterTradeIreland and, more generally, build business and trade collaboration between our two Departments, between the agencies we are responsible for and across our two jurisdictions.

A key element in harnessing the stability and collaboration on our island is the shared island initiative, which has contributed significantly in recent years. The initiative complements existing North-South structures and aims to harness the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement, to enhance co-operation, connection and mutual understanding on the island and to engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus on a shared future.

At the core of the shared island initiative is our commitment to work with all communities and all political traditions. The restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive will only make that easier. Given the weekend we have just had, when we said goodbye to the former Taoiseach, John Bruton, I am reminded of the importance of interacting with the unionist community, listening to them, trying to understand their political perspective and trying to put ourselves in their position, perhaps in respect of the pressures, changes and vulnerabilities exposed through the Brexit years. I and others may need to do more to build a shared island in the context of a new period of trust, improved relations and collaboration. Having met the First Minister and deputy First Minister, who sat together at that funeral, I am really encouraged by how the new Executive has begun. I do not think they were faking it. Both the First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, and the deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, are making a genuine effort to make this work. As a Government and an Oireachtas, we need to do everything we can to support that in a way that is constructive but also sometimes challenging. We will certainly do that from the perspective of business and enterprise. I look forward to working with the Minister, Conor Murphy, in that effort.

In 2020, the Government committed €1 billion to the shared island fund for this decade, providing ring-fenced resources to move forward with all-island investment priorities. So far, we have allocated almost €250 million from the fund to more than 15 major projects and multi-annual programmes. We have a lot yet to do. A good example is the joint funding of €70 million agreed by the Minister, Deputy Harris, with his Northern Irish and British ministerial counterparts in 2022 for two major research co-centres to conduct world-leading work on climate and food sustainability. The climate challenge we face does not respect borders. As we live on the same island, are connected to the same gas pipelines and operate on the same electricity grid, we need to work collaboratively and plan for and roll out a sustainable future from the perspectives of emissions management, energy management and biodiversity.

A shared island needs shared infrastructure, a shared all-island economy and a shared vision. In that regard, my Department has been working closely with the Northern Irish Department for the Economy, Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland to explore opportunities for continued development of the all-island economy, accruing economic and societal benefits for both North and South in alignment with our respective policy priorities. The proposal being developed by the agencies would see an unprecedented level of collaboration and partnership on enterprise policy on the island, which is something I am very anxious to encourage. By working collaboratively towards the development of cross-Border enterprise supports, this proposal paves the way for a more cohesive approach to enterprise policy between the two jurisdictions.

It also provides the opportunity to build upon the unique opportunities presented by Northern Ireland's post-Brexit position allowing the agencies to further build upon the positive changing nature of trade on the island while positively influencing society and the environment. I am hopeful we will see more progress on this shared-island proposal in the coming weeks. I look forward to sharing more information about it once we get things across the line in the context of perhaps having a debate on it in this House.

When one travels as much as I have been privileged to do, as a former Minister for Foreign Affairs, and as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, one begins to realise how the rest of the world sees the island of Ireland as one market, the markets of the UK and Ireland as a market, and the European Union in the context of the single market. There are real opportunities to brand Ireland, North and South, respecting both perspectives, both traditions and other traditions politically. We are very fortunate on this side of the Border to have two enterprise agencies in IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland that are the envy of most countries in the world in the success these agencies have delivered around economic development. Invest Northern Ireland has also had significant success and has huge potential. I would encourage - and I am already encouraging - as much collaboration as possible between those entities. Everyone can benefit on the back of that.

It is also important for us to focus on the east-west relationship. The absence of a functioning executive and assembly in Northern Ireland has put strain on the relationship between Britain and Ireland politically from an east-west perspective. Over the past two and a half decades one of the things that has pulled the British and Irish Governments together has been a unified sense of purpose in how we sustain, maintain and support a developing peace process. We need to continue to do that. We need to continue to reach out and rebuild relationships that have become somewhat remote over the last five or six years. We are well placed to do that now with an executive up and running and functioning well.

Let us not forget that the trade relationship east-west is worth about €100 billion a year. Some 200,000 people are employed in the Irish economy who are directly employed linked to trade across the Irish Sea. There are real opportunities there for us to build and grow that relationship on the back of an all-island economy that is functioning again and on an openness to remove as many barriers as we possibly can to facilitate east-west trade in the context of the new realities post-Brexit.

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