Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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471.To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for an update on the Shared Island Enterprise scheme; to provide the total allocation; the expenditure to date; the amount that is contained with expenditure ceilings laid out in the Stability Programme Update and Summer Economic Statement and the amount that will have to come from additional funding; the date the project was started; and the projected date of completion, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[34812/24]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment worked closely with the NI Department for the Economy as well as InterTradeIreland, Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland to develop a concept for a cross-border enterprise scheme. This concept is the culmination of an unprecedented level of collaboration between the enterprise agencies on the island.

On 20 February 2024, the Government awarded the enterprise agencies €30m in Shared Island funding to develop the scheme. This scheme will be entirely funded from within the awarded Shared Island funding, which the agencies will utilise towards developing supports in three thematic areas. These are:

•Female Entrepreneurship

•Cross-border Networks and Clusters

•Collaborative Cross-Border Investment Projects.

Officials from my Department continue to work closely with the enterprise agencies, as well as the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy, towards mobilisation of this scheme, which will be launched later this year.

The enterprise agencies currently forecast that they will spend over €1 million in developing this scheme by the end of 2024. While discussions are still ongoing about profiling spend for the duration of the scheme, the entire €30 million will be spent by the time the scheme concludes in December 2027.

I look forward to having the opportunity to share more information about the beneficial work the enterprise agencies are carrying out in collaboration with each other when the scheme is launched later this year.