Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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134. To ask the Taoiseach the projects in counties Cavan and Monaghan which have been announced as part of the Shared Island Fund to date. [37551/20]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government sets out the Government’s commitments on a Shared Island and to working with all communities and traditions on the island to build consensus around a shared future, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.

On 22 October, I set out the Government’s vision and priorities on Shared Island in an online event at Dublin Castle. Over 800 people participated online, comprising a broad range of civil society, community, sectoral, and political representatives, across the island of Ireland and in Britain.

In Budget 2021, the Government announced the Shared Island Fund, with a planned €500m to be made available out to 2025, ring-fenced for Shared Island projects.

The Shared Island Fund provides significant new, multiannual capital funding for investment on a strategic basis in collaborative North/South projects that will support the commitments and objectives of the Good Friday Agreement.

Funding will be disbursed to Departments and Agencies in line with Programme for Government priorities and on the basis of collaborative North/South projects.

The funding will support the delivery of key cross-border infrastructure initiatives and new Government investment in all-island initiatives in areas such as research, health, education and the environment, and for addressing the particular challenges of the North West and Border communities, further to our commitments on Shared Island in the Programme for Government.

A number of these relate to projects that are relevant for Cavan and Monaghan within the wider border region, including for instance the A5 transport corridor and the Ulster Canal connection from Clones to Upper Lough Erne.