Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 November 2024
19. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the funding that will be made available by his Department under the shared island initiative for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45494/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra20. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress to date in supporting cross-Border and all-Ireland projects through the shared island initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45495/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 20 together.
The Shared Island Initiative, which I established as Taoiseach, is a whole of Government endeavour that aims to deliver practical benefits for the whole island of Ireland by working with all communities for a shared future, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.
While the Shared Island Fund is for the most part administered by the Department of the Taoiseach, my Department also plays an active role in delivering on the objectives of the Shared Island Initiative, including through the administration of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund.
As a complement to the Shared Island Fund, in early 2023 I launched the Shared Island Civic Society Fund to promote practical North South civic society cooperation and engagement across a range of sectors and themes, consistent with the objectives and commitments of the Good Friday Agreement. The fund is a very practical demonstration of the Government’s support for developing cross-border civic society contacts. These relationships and partnerships go to the heart of the Shared Island initiative, bringing different and often very diverse communities together in pursuit of a shared objective.
To date, the Shared Island Civic Society Fund has provided funding of €1.5 million to some 100 organisations involved in fifty-five cross border projects across a range of areas such as the environment, community development, heritage, social enterprise, the voluntary sector, and sports.
The most recent round of the Civic Society Fund, through which a further €1.5 million will be provided to support civic society projects, closed in August this year, and applications are currently being assessed by officials in my Department.
While the overall Shared Island Civic Fund budget for 2025 has yet to be finalised, it is anticipated that the annual budgets for the 2025 - 2027 period will be in the region of €2 million per annum, an increase on funding available to date.
More broadly under the Shared Island Fund, in February of this year, the Government allocated €800 million to cross-border capital projects, the largest such allocation in the history of the State. These projects will help deliver transformative infrastructure, including by contributing to the upgrade of the A5, enhancing road-safety and connectivity across the border region and into the North-West. In addition, landmark cross-border programmes such as a partnership between the Departments of Education, north and south, to tackle educational underachievement are being funded under the Shared Island Initiative.
