Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 17 Dec 2002

Vol. 559 No. 5

Written Answers. - Cross-Border Co-Operation.

Jimmy Deenihan

Question:

78 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will put provisions in place to improve the level of contact and co-operation between community groups, schools, local authorities and other organisations here and in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21229/02]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

The participants to the Good Friday Agreement formally recognised the value of the work being done by many organisations to develop reconciliation and mutual understanding between and within communities in Northern Ireland and between North and South. Moreover, they saw this work as playing a vital role in consolidating peace and political agreement. Accordingly, the parties to the Agreement pledged their continuing support for such organisations and agreed to positively examine the scope for enhanced financial assistance for the work of reconciliation. In line with this commitment, in 1999 the Government increased the funding available to this Department's reconciliation fund to €2 million, an eightfold increase on the previous year.

In the past four years the increased funding – in aggregate, more than €10 million – has enabled my Department to make over 300 grants to organisations involved in a wide range of cross-community and cross-Border reconciliation and outreach activities. The larger allocations from the reconciliation fund are provided to organisations that operate on an all-island basis – for instance, Co-operation Ireland and the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation. However, many smaller organisations, working on a localised basis across the community interface or in co-operation with partner bodies in the other part of the island have also benefited from the fund.

I am very pleased that, notwithstanding the more difficult budgetary constraints that now apply, the Government has been able to broadly maintain its financial commitment to the reconciliation fund. The 2003 allocation to the appropriate sub-head in my Department is €2.539 million.

Finally, it is worth noting that the cross-community and cross-Border endeavours assisted by my Department's reconciliation fund complement the good work being assisted in these areas by other Government Departments, such as the Department of Education and Science, and by the larger financial interventions of the EU Peace 2 and INTEREG 3A programmes and the community relations programme operated by the International Fund for Ireland. As regards the involvement of the local authorities, I was pleased to note that the three long-standing local authority cross-Border networks are to play a key role in the implementation of approximately €54 million of the INTEREG 3A programme, which was launched in Newry on 20 November 2002.