Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 31, inclusive, together.

On 10 April, I announced the new phase of the Government’s shared island initiative in a keynote address to the fourth shared island forum. Our programme for Government sets out an ambitious agenda for building a shared island, backed by a further €1 billion commitment to the shared island fund out to 2035. Already on 25 February, the Government announced over €50 million from the shared island fund for new programmes to run from 2025-30 on sustainable tourism, arts and cultural heritage, civic society co-operation and community-led nature restoration. Government Departments have been tasked to bring forward further new shared island projects proposals this year that will implement our commitments to more strategic all-island investment and co-operation across virtually all sectors over the next five years.

At the shared island forum I also announced a new dimension the initiative to commence later this year called the shared home place programme. This will be open to the people from every corner of the island to build new connections through our place-based heritage. It will engage also with Irish communities in Britain and further afield and with the contributions of Irish, Anglo-Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions across the island of Ireland, recognising how these are an integral part of the heritage of every county today and crucial to how we approach and build our future.

On sport, our programme for Government affirms we will promote an all-island approach to hosting major international sporting events. Sports governing bodies and clubs have successfully applied to the shared island civic society fund and reconciliation fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for support for cross-Border grassroots engagements and tournaments.

On 28 April I launched an overarching report of the Economic and Social Research Institute’s joint research programme with my Department as part of the shared island initiative, which has produced 16 reports to date. All reports are publicly available on gov.ie. Research is an essential part of the initiative and on 28 April I also announced a new phase of further joint research with the ESRI commencing this year. We need data to inform all-island investment and co-operation priorities as we build a shared future together on this island. The huge untapped further potential of all-island co-operation is a major takeaway from the ESRI’s overarching report. This reflects the Government’s commitments to expand and progress our shared island initiative so that we bring co-operation and relationships across the island of Ireland to a new level.

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