Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island dialogue All-Island Women's Forum civic initiative. [49704/22]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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4. To ask the Taoiseach if he will list the various companies, groups and organisations that have received funding as part of his Department's shared island investments; if he will provide a breakdown on the amounts of funding each received; and the purpose of it. [51562/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach if efforts continue to be made through the shared island concept to ensure that the benefits of a shared island approach can be of major economic significance to the island of Ireland, north and south. [51636/22]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island dialogue All-Island Women's Forum civic initiative. [53213/22]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island dialogue All-Island Women's Forum civic initiative. [53233/22]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the shared island dialogue All-Island Women's Forum civic initiative. [53393/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 8, 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. This is underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. This work is proceeding on a whole-of-government basis and we are working with the Northern Ireland Executive, UK Government and cross-Border local-authority, education-institution and civil-society partnerships.

To date, the Government has allocated €140.4 million from the shared island fund to move forward with projects that implement commitments and objectives on the shared island initiative, as set out in the programme for Government and the revised national development plan. Shared island fund projects are taken forward by the relevant Minister and his or her Department, working through all-island partnerships. Allocations are included in departmental Votes, as needed, over a multi-annual period, managed by the relevant Department with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The allocations from the shared island fund to date are €5 million for the shared island local authority development funding scheme; €3 million to bring the Narrow Water bridge project to tender; and €47 million for phases 2 and 3 of the Ulster Canal restoration, taken forward by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. There is €40 million for the North-South Research Programme and €20 million for all-island research centres, taken forward by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science. There is €15 million for the shared island electric vehicle charging infrastructure scheme and €3 million for a shared island strand in the community climate action programme, taken forward by the Minister for Transport and for the Environment, Climate and Communications. There is €7.4 million for shared island arts investment projects, taken forward by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Fostering inclusive and constructive dialogue is also central to our shared island approach.

More than 2,200 citizens and civic representatives have participated in 12 shared island dialogue events so far. This year, the events have been held in person and on a regional basis across the island. The All-Island Women's Forum, convened by the National Women's Council, was a very welcome follow-on from one of the early engagements as part of the dialogue series with women's representatives. The forum aims to address under-representation of women and further develop women's role in peace-building and civic society. Its work has been supported through the reconciliation fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs. I was pleased to launch the forum's first report on 8 September. This set out its first term of work and made recommendations, for both jurisdictions on the island, on tackling gender-based violence, civic engagement, education, media and women's political participation. The Government will consider and positively engage with the forum's recommendations, consulting the Executive and the UK Government, as relevant.

The Government looks forward to continuing to engage with the All-Island Women's Forum as it continues to provide an important, necessary space for civic dialogue led by women, contributing to wider public debates and helping to shape the all-island civic agenda.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I commend the work of the All-Island Women's Forum and its commitment to fully inclusive engagement. One of the outcomes of its work is its highlighting of the urgent need to adopt a joint approach to tackling gender-based violence in all its forms. While the Departments of Justice in the North and the South share best practice in tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, there remains a shared challenge associated with a lack of disaggregated data both north and south. Much of this shared island focus is on research and data, so addressing the findings of the report could be a matter that the Taoiseach could advance before stepping down on 15 December. I ask him to consider that and commit to it.

The island of Ireland has one of the highest rates of domestic femicide in Europe. The former Minister for Justice initiated a study three and a half years ago. We understand that the lead has submitted the final report to the current Minister for Justice but that it has not been published. The current programme for Government commits to legislation to introduce domestic homicide reviews. We ask that this be delivered as soon as possible.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Taoiseach's reply. I encourage a focus on the shared island initiative in the North and South, with particular reference to the economic benefits accruing and recognising the value of closer co-operation, building on what the Taoiseach has just referred to. There are considerable benefits associated with the sharing of the island. We should get away from the silo syndrome indicated in the results of a survey last year which showed that 62% of people in the South are negative about a united Ireland, shared island or any such arrangement on the basis of the cost. Everything has a cost. If we are serious about these matters, it is important that we give them our all in terms of support and enthusiasm and recognise the benefits accruing to us all on this shared island.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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Last week, I asked the Taoiseach about the review into the State's abortion legislation, which is a matter of concern for women both north and south. He told me two pieces of research have been conducted, one by Dr. Catherine Conlon of Trinity College into the experience of women who have accessed abortion services here and a second carried out by Manchester Metropolitan University into the views and experiences of abortion providers. The Taoiseach mentioned that the Trinity College research was published in July but did not say anything about the Manchester Metropolitan University research being published. I have searched and cannot find it. Is it the case that it has not been published yet? If so, why would that be the case? When does the Taoiseach intend to publish it?

I wish to convey my best wishes to the organisers of this weekend's march in Dublin to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar and of this Saturday's Women Deserve Better march in Belfast, which calls on Sinn Féin's Minister for Communities to deliver on the promise of providing essential women's services, a promise that has not been met yet.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Since we are speaking about the shared island dialogue and the All-Island Women's Forum, I want to pay tribute to May Blood, from the Shankill area of Belfast, who died last week. May Blood was a committed trade unionist who fought for better conditions for the workforce, mainly women, in the linen mills. She was also a president of the Labour Party of Northern Ireland and played an invaluable grassroots role in the peace process through her work as a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. One of her passions was integrated education. Her work on integrated education in Northern Ireland provides a pathway to addressing the divisions that remain. One of the recommendations of the All-Island Women's Forum was the expansion of integrated education and Educate Together models. It would therefore be a fitting tribute to May Blood to make progress on that now, particularly the recommendation on a joint North–South education scheme. Does the Government have any plans to act on this?

Given that it looks increasingly likely – ominously so – that an election will be called later this week for the Assembly, has the Taoiseach spoken yet to the new British Prime Minister and asked him to take any steps necessary to delay that prospect?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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It appears that we are on the verge of the second Stormont election within six months. The DUP has used a boycott of Stormont to attempt to whip up sectarianism to stop its slide in the polls. The truth is that more and more people are seeing through its sectarian and Tory policies. This is the party that backed the disastrous policies of May, Johnson and Truss and failed to do anything about the cost-of-living crisis affecting working-class people in the North across the sectarian divide. Now, more than ever, we need socialists like Gerry Carroll in Stormont building an alternative to the status quo, supporting workers' struggles and putting forward a politics of class, not creed. Does the Taoiseach agree that the DUP should stop playing games with people's lives and drop this boycott? Is it not clear that a simple return to business as usual is not good enough, that the institutionalised sectarianism of Stormont has failed and that we need to be fighting for a socialist Ireland?

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach mentioned investment in culture and arts in the shared island programme. I draw his attention to something that was raised in testimony at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight about the Irish film industry by both Equity, which represents artists and performers, and representatives of crew, the people who work behind the camera, if you like. Both of them were testifying to the fact that, even though we have a lot of State money going into the live action film area, the contracts that performers here get are grossly inferior to those in the UK or in the North in terms of their access to royalties for the future use of their performances and their general pay and conditions. That is also true for crew. As I stated to the Taoiseach many times, we must ensure the public investment in this country to develop the film industry is closely tied to decent conditions for performers and crew.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On the shared island dialogue, in particular the All-Island Women's Forum civic initiative, Deputy Gould made a point about the potential of research and shared data on domestic and gender-based violence in particular. We will pursue that. We have the capacity to do it working with the various groups North and South and the agencies that are in a position to collect the data and do the research. I will follow up on that. The recommendations put forward by the forum include the development of an all-island approach to ending gender-based violence. We would be interested in doing that and following up on it. Deputy Gould might be interested to know that next month the Minister for Justice is convening a shared island dialogue on tackling gender-based violence and abuse. That would be a very useful dialogue and engagement to bring this issue further forward. I would see merit in research that would look generally at the issue, but also at wider issues such as the under-representation of women on the island more generally. I have asked the shared island unit in my Department to consider that and to work in consultation with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the relevant Northern Ireland Executive departments.

On the further recommendations on the civic forums and their establishment, which was provided for under the Good Friday Agreement, the parties did not develop or show great enthusiasm for the civic forums, which was a mistake. We would support the recommendation from the women’s forum. There is potential for synergy in the development of a media partnership between broadcasters to amplify women’s voices, on gender quotas for assembly elections and local elections, and on a wider range of issues that overlap with those of the recommendations of the Citizen's Assembly on Gender Equality and the Oireachtas committee.

I agree with Deputy Durkan that there is tremendous potential here to concentrate on what we can do together as opposed to that which divides us. The whole ethos has been without prejudice to the constitutional position of people, that we plough ahead and make progress on a range of issues such as climate, biodiversity restoration, economic development, education and so on. The Deputy's points are well made.

Deputy Barry raised a more specific question. I will check that out in terms of the research by the Manchester Metropolitan University. I will ask the Minister for Health where that is. I do not see why it would not be published. I understand the UK Government has now come forward with the legislation in respect of termination of pregnancy services in Northern Ireland. There were issues on the ground in terms of getting that through the assembly when it was up and running prior to the last election, just as there was with the Irish language Act, so Westminster is facilitating the passage of both issues, which have been deadlocked for some time. That remains the position. There is a timeline for the review of the legislation on the termination of pregnancy in the Republic. The review is under way, and it is informed by the research the Deputy referenced. I hope the Minister will be in a position to bring recommendations from the review and to publish it in due course.

I concur with Deputy Bacik’s very strong tribute to May Blood and the contribution she made to reconciliation, integration and the promotion of a progressive perspective on the future of Northern Ireland and politics within the island, and to the Labour Party within Northern Ireland, which lost a lot of support over time. One of my first engagements in the North was when I was a young student. I went to the Shankill area to meet Alf Midgley, who was a social worker in the area. His father was a Labour Party MP, Harry Midgley. I got a very strong sense of his commitment to the working people of that area. The Labour Party has an honourable tradition within Northern Ireland. Because of the polarisation and the sectarianism and the degree to which the electoral system always gravitated towards getting people back into trenches, so to speak, it has never allowed for that type of what we might call normal politics to emerge. There are issues there that must be considered in the future. The elections we have had should be vindicated. We cannot mess around with that. We should allow the full validity and integrity of those elections to be followed in terms of the restoration of the Executive and the assembly and then, in the fullness of time, in five years’ time, when there is to be a future election, we would have a different system. There is time to review that. It is a necessity. I think it was Deputy Boyd Barrett or Deputy Paul Murphy who raised the question on the way the electoral system currently works. It could be argued that it is polarising and does not allow for the multiplicity of views to come through. Right now, the results of the election must be validated. By that I mean the Executive should be restored, and the First Minister and the deputy First Minister should be as per the election results.

On the film industry, that is an issue I will raise with the Minister, Deputy Martin. It is open to Deputy Boyd Barrett and others to make a submission to the shared island unit in respect of that, although it is more of an industrial relations issue. Broadly speaking, we want to create parity and we want to learn from the experiences North and South, and if the situation is better in the North, then we in the Republic can learn from that in respect of the film industry. We are open to improving our situation in the Republic.

In response to Deputy Bacik’s point on education, I have been passionate about school completion. It is one of the key weaknesses in certain areas within the North. We are very anxious to engage with a Northern Ireland Executive, following on from the ESRI research on school completion in the Republic and in the North on whether lessons can be learned. We would be willing to use the shared island fund to underpin initiatives to help school completion outcomes in the North.