Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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129. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the Centre for Cross-Border Studies will receive its budgetary allocation under the temporary arrangement for budgetary allocations while the Northern Ireland Executive is not in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47160/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government, through the Department of Education and Science, provides core funding to the Centre for Cross Border Studies (CCBS), amounting to €180,000 in 2016. Applications from the CCBS to my Department’s Reconciliation Fund in 2015 led to the awarding of grants amounting to €60,000. CCBS next applied for funding to the Reconciliation Fund in the first funding round of 2017 and a grant of €8,400 was approved. It is regrettable and deeply concerning that, eight months after the last Assembly election, a power-sharing Executive is not in place to make the necessary decisions, including on budgetary issues such as this one, for Northern Ireland. In accordance with the Government’s role as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process, I continue to engage with and urge the parties to strive for the necessary agreement to allow the devolved institutions of the Agreement to operate again.

In the event that the devolved institutions cannot function, it is the responsibility of the British and Irish Governments to ensure that the North/South and East-West institutions of the Agreement can continue to operate effectively and in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the Agreement.

The CCBS, both through research and provision of advisory services, plays an important role in facilitating and strengthening the operation of North/South co-operation in areas of mutual interest and I have no difficulty urging financial and other support for their work. I will, in this context, raise the question of funding with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if this becomes necessary.