Brendan Smith
Ceist:1. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach for a report on the shared island youth forum. [37572/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 4 October 2023
Ceisteanna (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Ceist:2. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of his Department’s shared island unit. [41329/23]
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Paul Murphy
Ceist:3. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on the shared island unit in his Department. [42346/23]
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Richard Boyd Barrett
Ceist:4. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on the shared island unit in his Department. [42347/23]
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Mick Barry
Ceist:5. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach to report on the work of his Department's shared island unit. [42617/23]
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Bernard Durkan
Ceist:6. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the extent of his interaction with all parties in Northern Ireland in the context of shared island initiative. [42808/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6 together. Through the Government's shared island initiative, we are engaging with all communities to build consensus around a shared future and delivering benefits for the whole island. The Government has so far allocated almost €250 million from the shared island fund, moving forward with our commitments and objectives in this area in the programme for Government and the national development plan. In June, we provided €56 million from the fund for new all-island projects. This included a major allocation of up to €44.5 million for the construction of a new teaching building at Ulster University’s campus in Derry to expand higher education provision in the north-west region.
The shared island fund is about bringing people together from all parts of the island. Culture and the arts are among the ways we can do that. I was pleased last week to announce with the Tánaiste and with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, €7.4 million from the shared island fund for five new all-island arts capital investment projects. The shared island research programme continues, with the most recent report by the ESRI published on 18 September analysing the factors that drive or deter student mobility across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The report was launched by the Minister, Deputy Harris, who affirmed the Government's commitment to work with partners, including in third level institutions, to make it as easy as possible for students to study in either jurisdiction on the island.
I am particularly pleased that, on 8 September, a new shared island youth forum met for the first time in Dublin Castle. The forum brings together 80 young civic representatives from a diverse range of backgrounds, both North and South. They are meeting over the course of the next year to develop a statement of their vision and values for a shared future on the island.
Through the youth forum and the continuing shared island dialogue series, we will continue to foster inclusive civic interaction on how we can share the island of Ireland into the future.
I thank An Taoiseach for his reply. I welcome in particular the establishment of the shared island youth forum view within the overall shared island initiative. I believe it is extremely important that decision-makers hear clearly the views, concerns and ambitions of young people. We must also ensure that we hear the voices from across all communities, North and South, and particularly from those who are less advantaged and who may unfortunately have limited educational attainment or skills to enable them to obtain gainful employment. By working the Good Friday Agreement, people of all age groups can contribute in a positive, ambitious and progressive way to the building of a much better Ireland for all, North and South, and also an Ireland that does not threaten anyone's political or cultural beliefs and traditions.
The one strong request that I would make of the Taoiseach with regard to this particular forum is to ensure that the voices of those less advantaged young people and their communities are listened to in all deliberations in this worthwhile initiative.
We all support the work of the shared island unit. In particular, we have seen some major infrastructural projects such as the Narrow Water bridge, which we want to see completed as soon as possible, and that everything is going in the correct direction.
I welcome any moves that are made in relation to educational improvements on a cross-Border basis. I have one issue that I would like to throw into the mix. It relates to apprenticeships and was raised with me by a young man who is working in south Armagh. He is an apprentice butcher, who is looking to serve his apprenticeship in Dundalk, where he lives in the South, but this cannot be facilitated at the moment. This is the sort of thing that we could look at and rectify.
The wider issue I wish to raise relates to something on which the Taoiseach has spoken lately, namely, Irish unity. He spoke about wanting to see Irish unity and also the possibility of there being unity. What moves will be made to make sure we have forums across the board, be it a citizens' assembly or something else that allows for everyone to have a conversation on what Irish unity could look like, and that we involve as many people as possible? While we continue with some of that modelling work that has been done by the shared island unit, that work must be increased to ensure we do all the necessary due diligence on the possibilities for preparing for Irish unity.
Workers at Vista Therm, a glass manufacturing company in County Armagh, have been on strike now for 12 weeks. This mainly migrant workforce has been forced into taking this action for their basic demands of trade union recognition and a pay increase. The company refused to engage with the union of the workers choice, which is Unite the Union. It has suspended the shop stewards and dismissed workers during the strike. What is going on here is union busting. Unite reckons it is one of the worst cases of union busting that it has seen in Northern Ireland down through the years.
What is the parent company of Vista Therm? Is it a bunch of free market cowboys from the USA? Is it a bunch of Tory city slickers from the City of London? No. The parent company is Carey Glass from Nenagh in County Tipperary. The funny thing is that the Carey Glass plant in Nenagh is unionised. SIPTU union recognition is in place. What does the Taoiseach say about an Irish company which applies such a blatant double standard - union recognition of the South but no union recognition whatsoever - union busting in fact - in the North? What does he say about such a company, especially when the union busting is in order to better exploit vulnerable migrant workers?
I wish to express my strong commitment and support for the points raised by my colleague, Deputy Brendan Smith, who is from a good Ulster county. It is important to remember to try to maximise the shared island concept with a view to ensuring it is part and parcel of the Good Friday Agreement. There is a need to ensure that the aspirations of the Good Friday Agreement continue to remain within the vision and that the benefits accruing from both it and the shared island initiative and their potential remain to the fore. No one or no opinion must be excluded. Given the roles of the Irish and British Governments, nobody must be excluded from the discussion. There must be no perceived threat or actual threat to the Good Friday Agreement or to the interests of either community in Northern Ireland.
I thank Deputies for their questions. I will start with Deputy Brendan Smith, who asked the first question. He made the case in particular for making sure that the voices of disadvantaged young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, both North and South, from the Border area should be part of the dialogue. I think that is the case but I will double-check that it is with the unit, which falls under my Department, and come back to the Deputy in writing about it.
As I mentioned earlier, the forum met for the first time on 8 September in Dublin Castle. The Minister, Deputy Harris, addressed the forum. It contains 40 representatives from the North and 40 from the South and reflects gender, ethnic, community, faith and other identity diversities. The forum will meet and deliberate over the next year and set out its vision and values for a shared future on the island. It is focusing on five main themes, namely, sustainability, opportunity, well-being, equality, and also culture and identity. Two meetings have been held so far, one in Dublin and one in Antrim. The next meeting will be held on 20 October in the Aviva Stadium. I am keen that I should have some engagement with the forum as well at some point, certainly before it completes its work.
The forum is being organised by the shared island unit in the Department and that is being done in partnership with the National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, and also Youth Action Northern Ireland. We are very grateful to both those bodies for helping us to put it together.
Deputy Ó Murchú raised the issue of a cross-Border apprenticeship. If I picked it up right, I think the person is living in one jurisdiction and wishes to do an apprenticeship in the other. That is the kind of thing we should try to facilitate, so if the Deputy wants to pass on some information on the case, I will make sure the Minister, Deputy Harris, gets it and we will see what, if anything, we can do.
In relation to the shared island unit's research programme, part of the research it has done, which is very interesting, is comparing how systems work differently North and South, whether in education, criminal justice, local government or welfare - all of those things. That is useful in its own right because we can learn from each other. I am very interested in comparative analysis from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It can be hard to make comparisons sometimes because people collect statistics differently and so on but it is a useful exercise in its own right because we can learn from best practice elsewhere. There are certainly things done better in the North than in the South and vice versa, but it would also be useful in the event of unification, were that to happen, because should there be a referendum on unification people will ask a lot of hard questions, very practical ones. What will happen to the health service? How will policing work? How will education work? How will the welfare system work? It will be important to be able to answer those questions to the extent that they can be answered. We are quite some way away from that but I think it is good that this work is being done, really for the first time.
Deputy Barry raised the issue of a strike in Armagh. My view, which is a simple one, is that companies should comply with whatever the labour laws are in the jurisdiction in which they operate. That is the way it should be, and it is what we would expect them to do.
Deputy Durkan raised the need for the shared island programme to be inclusive. I totally agree with that. Nobody should feel excluded. Part of what we are trying to do is to have a certain east-west element to it as well because some people in the Protestant-unionist-loyalist community may feel uncomfortable engaging with the shared island fund and the shared island unit but if we bring in an east-west dimension involving Scotland and Britain, that can help. I appreciate that there will be some people who just do not want to engage with it at all because it is a creature of the Irish Government, which is unfortunate, but we want to create pathways to make it easier for those who might wish to do so.