Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

9. To ask the Taoiseach if he plans to advance the shared island initiative in discussion with the newly elected British Prime Minister. [44711/22]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

10. To ask the Taoiseach the status of developments under the shared island initiative. [44814/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

11. To ask the Taoiseach his proposals to advance the shared island initiative with particular emphasis on the need to ensure ongoing dialogue at all levels to move all parties in the direction of peaceful equilibrium. [45711/22]

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

12. To ask the Taoiseach to report on the work of his Department's shared island unit. [48259/22]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

13. To ask the Taoiseach the funding that has been allocated to the shared island unit of his Department in budget 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48332/22]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

14. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island unit. [48333/22]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

15. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island unit. [48336/22]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

16. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island unit. [48471/22]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

17. To ask the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the work of his Department's shared island unit. [48635/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 17, 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 delivering tangible benefits for the whole island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. In the budget last week, the Government confirmed an allocation of €100 million to our shared island fund for 2023, consistent with our commitment to the fund and to take forward our all-island investment priorities under the revised national development plan. We are working through all-island partnerships with the Executive, local authorities, education institutions and civil society.

I have been very clear throughout that we see scope for a strong east-west dimension to the shared island initiative and I see real potential for strategic investment by the Irish and British Governments for shared objectives and priorities, for instance, on all-island research hubs. I took the opportunity of my recent meeting with Prime Minister Truss to flag the shared island initiative to her.

On 4 July, the Government allocated €70.4 million from the shared island fund to take forward new cross-Border schemes on community climate action, electric vehicle, EV, charging infrastructure roll-out, arts investment projects and development of new local authority projects. We also made an enabling allocation from the fund for phase 3 of the Ulster Canal restoration. On 30 August, I laid the foundation stone for phase 2 of the Ulster Canal restoration, which is fully funded by the Government, including through the shared island fund, and on track to be completed next year. On 29 September, I and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced 25 awards totalling more than €4.3 million under the shared island local authority development funding scheme at an event in Cavan which brought together 23 different councils from across the island. Through the scheme, they are now working in cross-Border partnerships to progress feasibility work over the next year on new collaborative investment projects, with a view to accessing further funding in both jurisdictions for delivery stage, including through the shared island fund. Projects address shared concerns for the island, including on biodiversity, sustainable tourism, circular economy, innovation, and cultural and creative industries.

The shared island research programme commissioned by my Department is continuing. Final reports from the ESRI will be published later this month on productivity levels on the island and, next month, on co-ordination of renewable energy policies and electricity infrastructure.

The Government's focus is on inclusive civic engagement with all communities and political traditions. The shared island dialogue series has so far directly involved some 2,000 citizens and civic representatives through 11 dialogue events. On 29 June, I addressed a dialogue with more than 150 young people in attendance in Derry on the theme of identities on a shared island. The next dialogue will be on arts and culture at Queen's University in Belfast on 13 October, with participation by the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, for the Government, and the Executive Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey, MLA.

On 29 September, I participated in the launch of the first report of the All-Island Women's Forum, and on Monday, 3 October, I launched the report of the iCommunity hub led by The Wheel and the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action. Both projects followed on from our shared island engagements and, supported by the Government, they are forging significant new civic connections and making recommendations on common concerns for communities across the island. The Government will positively consider their recommendations.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We have nine speakers, who have one minute each. The Taoiseach will have two and a half minutes to respond. I call Deputy Durkan.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive reply and for pursuing this useful initiative in the way that he has done. I merely want to support that. I ask that he will ensure that all levels of community interaction that can be facilitated will be facilitated to establish trust between the communities there and, of course, between North and South in terms of what might be seen as a threat by some in some communities and might be seen as an admirable objective by others. I support his commitment to continue working at the project in such a way as to bring the people of this island together. The last point I want to make is that we also need to undertake a certain amount of education in this part of the island, with particular reference to the 62% of Irish people who said they were in favour of closer co-operation but were against paying for it.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was very glad to attend the event in my hometown in Cavan last week where the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, launched the special funding to assist local authorities to prepare programmes. It was great to have people of all political views from 23 local authorities there representing their communities. There was an extremely warm welcome for the shared island funding. The only thing I heard of was people coming forward with more projects that need more funding, so it is widely welcomed. The Taoiseach and I previously discussed the opportunity to develop our further education sector on an all-Ireland, cross-Border basis. I had the opportunity to visit the new campus in South West College in Enniskillen some months ago, and it was warmly embracing the idea of the shared island and doing work together.

Similar to Deputy Durkan, I wish the mindset and thinking on progressing the shared island initiative would be shared throughout all our Departments and statutory agencies because it is not acceptable that students attending colleges in Northern Ireland and Britain cannot get the once-off fees contribution announced in the budget.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I ask for an update on the Narrow Water Bridge project. When we spoke yesterday, I referenced the need for a citizens’ assembly, in particular on the basis of the successful Ireland's Future event. The Taoiseach spoke about the shared island initiative. I would like to see how that conversation could be expanded to be all it would need to be. I ask that we look at research and modelling that could model Departments and systems for a united Ireland, and that we come up with a piece of work similar to what Scotland's Future did regarding what Irish unity could look like, and that we answer some of the questions that are in front of people at the moment.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful, as ever, to the Taoiseach for his comprehensive response.

One of the many great sadnesses of the political stand-off on these islands is the fact that we do not have the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement up and running properly, for example, the North-South Ministerial Council, and that we do not have our trade and economic ministers meeting more often and pushing the agenda of closer North-South economic co-operation. North-South trade is rocketing at the moment, which is good. Will the Taoiseach outline how the shared island unit could fill the gap in terms of greater co-operation on North-South and east-west economic activity?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is already an effective hard border on this island that stops people from moving freely for work, accessing healthcare and visiting friends on the island. That is because the common travel area excludes those without UK or Irish citizenship, including refugees, asylum seekers, partners of citizens and more, who are not permitted to move freely within the island of Ireland for leisure, tourism, work, connecting flights or any other reason. They cannot access jobs or education on the other side of the Border or participate in anything across the Border, even sports events, festivals, cultural events and so on.

The common travel area campaign by the North West Migrants Forum is fighting to change this. It has four requests: all lawful residents on the island should be able to cross the land Border as visitors without prior permission; racial profiling at the Border should be stopped; the pre-2004 birthright to Irish citizenship should be restored; and essential cross-Border services should be open to all. Will the Taoiseach agree with these policies and stop the perpetuation of a racist and discriminatory approach?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for the update on the shared island unit. On Saturday, I was glad to represent the Labour Party at the Ireland's Future event in the 3Arena, at which an impressive cross-party array of Deputies and Senators was present. The Taoiseach was not able to be present due to other commitments, but his party was represented. It was disappointing that there was no elected unionist or Alliance representative present. It was clear from the event that there are serious issues that need to be teased out and debated in order to make further progress on setting out a pathway towards achieving a united Ireland, to which so many of us aspire. Will the Taoiseach outline whether he believes his Department might seek at some point to commission a Green Paper and then a White Paper in order to make progress on these issues, which we in the Labour Party have suggested might be an appropriate pathway forward? The shared island unit has done valuable work and I paid tribute to it at the conference, but further steps need to be taken now.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach mentioned shared island activity around the issue of arts. Later today, the Committee on Budgetary Oversight will, at my request, meet representatives of actors and other performers - the Equity union - and representatives of film crews. Something they will point out is that the pay and conditions of performers and crew in this State are far worse than they are in the North and Britain because film producers here, who are in receipt of a great deal of public money, are essentially pursuing a race to the bottom and providing much reduced pay, conditions and access to residual or royalty payments for people's performances.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my solidarity with workers at Royal Mail and British Telecom's Openreach who are striking again for decent pay increases this week and next.

I will raise a scandalous case for the Taoiseach to comment on. Just six hours after receiving a €15 million windfall from the budget through the abolition of VAT on newspapers, the Belgian-owned Mediahuis group announced plans to shut down printing at its Newry plant at the end of January with the loss of 46 jobs. This company made a net profit of €117 million last year, double that of the previous year. Does the Taoiseach intend to stand idly by and watch this shark benefit to the tune of €15 million while throwing its workforce onto the dole?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Ireland's Future event on Saturday was wonderful. With 5,000 people and ten political parties gathered there, it was probably the most broadly based conference in this country so far on the united Ireland that is about to happen. It is obvious to me that we are at the precipice of great change because there is no unionist majority in politics any more. There is no majority in the Assembly or at Westminster for the Union. Political polls show that there is no majority for the Union. I would say that the conditions for a referendum exist now. The only way to find out what the view of the people is is to hold a referendum. Government by speculation is not good, nor is running away from democratic decisions.

The greatest threat at the moment is that there will be an election called by the end of October if the DUP does not sit in the Executive. That is a serious crisis. Worse still, the DUP is threatening not to allow devolution to happen at all in future if it does not get its way. Is reform of the institutions at Stormont not needed so as to ensure that one political party cannot hold them to ransom in such a way again?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Regarding Deputy Durkan's question, the whole idea of the shared island unit is to be without prejudice to the constitutional position. That is why I think it has gained such traction, so we need to be careful. That is all I would say to Deputies who, in good faith, have put forward various perspectives. The reason it has gained such traction among civil society in Northern Ireland is because people accept its bona fides. It is not a Trojan horse for anything. People accept that it is meant to deal with issues on the ground pragmatically in terms of engagement. Rhetoric is easy and words are easy, but it is hard work on the ground that matters. I have seen this throughout my political lifetime. It is about people engaging with one another and talking with one another, not shouting at one another or saying, "My way is a better way than your way". It is about trying to get more and more engagement.

On issues like biodiversity and climate, there is so much that we could do on the island to restore biodiversity loss, to have common approaches to energy efficiencies and so on, which we are doing through the shared island initiative. I would appeal to people to let the shared island unit continue with what it is doing. It is building real momentum. Community groups are coming up now for the long haul on an ongoing basis. People can have legitimate aspirations and pursue those in different forums, but the shared island unit should maintain that approach, which is important in my view. The research that the shared island unit has done is also very significant. We are trying to get all communities involved. I have outlined that in terms of some of the bodies that have been set up already - the women's forum, the voluntary bodies, groups, the iCommunity hub and so on.

Deputy Brendan Smith is correct. If we could work on further education with the colleges of further education North and South, we would be interested in getting that done. Good work is already being done at third level. Ulster University Magee campus has made a proposal in respect of a technological university in the north west. We would be very much into that. All Government agencies and Departments have been communicated with about bringing forward proposals.

Deputy Ó Murchú spoke about the Narrow Water bridge. As he knows, we allocated €3 million to progress work on the Narrow Water bridge. Its delivery has been a priority for the Government. The project was proposed decades ago and this is the first time really that it has got moving because of the shared island funding and the commitment we have given to it. Louth County Council is acting as the lead project partner. There have been about eight meetings so far and we are hoping that the project will go to tender very shortly. We look forward to that. We will keep the Deputy updated in relation to developments on that.

Deputy Richmond is correct in terms of the need to restore the Executive.

I know my time is up, but regarding other points that have been made, I do not accept that there is a hard border. Migrant issues have been raised, certainly by the North West Migrants Forum, which I have met, but there is no hard border in terms of people being racially profiled at the Border. I have questions around that. Deeper analysis is required and we will undertake that.

The point I would make in respect of the issue around the election - I believe it was Deputy Tóibín who raised the issue of what would happen after the next election or if there was an election - is that the election we have just had has to be vindicated. It was held under the framework that is there now, so that should be vindicated. In the fullness of time, there is a case for reform before the election in five years' time because the politics have changed and the demographics have changed. I do not mean demographics specifically, but the political demographics have changed, if that makes sense.