Debate contribution: Towards a Shared Island

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 3 February 2025.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

3 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Towards a Shared Island

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4774735

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I am delighted to be here this evening to address the House in my new role as Minister of Finance. I thank my colleagues in the Department for Infrastructure for all their hard work and assistance over the past year. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Dr Caoimhe Archibald. I am committed to building on the positive progress that Caoimhe made on our public finances. I thank Members for their contributions to the debate. It should come as no surprise that I do not just recognise the potential of cross-border cooperation but see it as a vital element of our daily work. It is crucial if we are to improve the quality of and access to public services across the island, particularly along the border and in more rural areas. Cooperation is also important to growing the all-island economy that will deliver a better standard of living for all our people. We saw the importance of partnership working most recently when Governments North, South, east and west focused on urgently supporting the people and communities hardest hit by storm Éowyn. Of course it was disappointing that the North/South Ministerial Council could not meet when there was no Executive in place. Since Ministers returned this time last year, however, there have been two plenary meetings, one institutional meeting and 10 sectoral meetings, not to mention the bilateral meetings that will have taken place separately between Ministers or in the margins of those other meetings. Ministers and their officials have regularly engaged with their counterparts in the Irish Government to deliver for citizens, communities and the economy across the island. Last year, for example, my predecessor, Minister Archibald, had separate meetings with the Irish Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to discuss a range of important cross-border matters of relevance to my Department. She also accompanied our Minister of Education to the NSMC meeting in education sectoral format last year. In my predecessor's meeting with Minister Donohoe, they discussed the vital work of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), which my Department sponsors jointly with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and, in particular, how the €1 billion PEACE PLUS programme would be delivered across the North and the island's border counties.

The North/South bodies, of which the SEUPB is one, are perhaps the most prominent examples of how cooperation can work and is working in practice, with each being funded by the Assembly and the Government in Dublin. We continue to work with the Irish Government through the PEACE PLUS programme, as we did through its previous iterations, to deliver transformative shared spaces and to strengthen cross-community and cross-border relationships. The Peace programmes have touched many areas of life here including health, the environment, the economy and transport. They have helped to deliver a new transport hub in Derry, which has improved connectivity in the north-west.

There are many other examples of what Ministers and their Departments are doing outside the formal North/South structures. For example, in my previous role as Minister for Infrastructure, I progressed the all-island strategic rail review with my counterpart in Dublin. That is an excellent example of how we can plan on an all-island basis. With sufficient time and funding, that should provide services that better complement the development of the north-west transport hub. We have recent examples of how that can work in practice. The increased frequency of the rail service between Belfast and Dublin is an example of how, under the current structures, we can work across government and across the island to connect communities, unlock economic benefits and have a positive impact on people's lives. That was enabled by funding allocations from government bodies, North and South, and it will be further enhanced by Peace funding. It is critical that we continue to engage and deliver through North/South cooperation in order to meet our shared challenges and objectives. An effectively functioning North/South Ministerial Council is essential to that work. Many Members have touched on cooperation on health, including through the all-island congenital heart disease network, which is a single service for children and young people across the island that has been cited in the Irish Government's Programme for Government as an exemplar that could be followed when it comes to other healthcare matters. Other Members mentioned the North West Cancer Centre. Cooperation on health provides an excellent example of long-standing cooperation, but the Shared Island initiative has unlocked further opportunities for us to work together on an all-island basis. Departments already work in partnership with their counterparts in the South on many aspects of the Shared Island initiative, with some co-funding having been provided. The Department for the Economy works collaboratively with a range of Irish Government Departments on areas of mutual interest, including the single electricity market and on energy more generally. It is working closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to develop a new shared-island enterprise scheme that will focus on female entrepreneurship, cross-border networks, clusters and collaborative cross-border green investment. That is green as in green not green as in green.

That will strengthen all-island coordination and all-island research and increase scale through inter-agency collaboration. The Department of Education's RAISE programme is another example of how collaboration across the island supports people in the areas of most need. The announcement of an additional €1 billion allocation from the Irish Government to their Shared Island Fund and the introduction of Shared Island targets for each Department in the South are extremely welcome. Looking ahead to the Chancellor's spending review, I am hopeful that new regional growth funds will be made available to our Executive, enabling us to unlock new investment opportunities. We have an ambitious draft Programme for Government that sets out clear priorities and our longer-term mission. As we strive to do what matters most, we must be mindful of opportunities to maximise value wherever we share common goals that are aligned or complement each other and build on the existing strong joint working. The draft Budget for 2025-26, which, as Members know, is out for consultation, sets out the suggested funding that is available to Departments to do that next year. Unfortunately, the fiscal position is highly constrained because of decisions taken elsewhere. That only strengthens the need to exploit existing opportunities for greater collaboration. I noted Members' reference to the new macroeconomic model, which was produced jointly by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. That is an exciting development, and their report clearly demonstrates the interdependence of the all-island economy and how we benefit from having close economic relationships on these islands and internationally. The new economic model will improve our understanding of how the economy here operates and help to give us a deeper insight into how much we can target investment and growth. I look forward to seeing how the model is used and evolves over the coming years. My officials, along with officials from the Department for the Economy, are engaging with the researchers to establish how we can harness the model to inform considerations in that regard. The new model really helps to show why North/South cooperation is so important. In closing, let me say that I have set out how Ministers have been meeting regularly on a North/South basis since the institutions were restored this time last year, including via the North/South Ministerial Council. There are strong examples of how Departments are working together to deliver better outcomes on a cross-border and all-island basis. Again, just last week, First Minister Michelle O'Neill held discussions with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste not only on the storm but on the importance of delivering transformative projects, such as the A5 and Casement Park, which have the potential to bring real, lasting change to communities across the island. Looking forward, we will continue to build on the cooperation that there has been so far in order to deliver better infrastructure and public services for all our citizens. Growing the all-island economy through deeper North/South cooperation will increase prosperity right across and benefit all parts of the island. In these times of limited resources, we must continue to work in partnership and collaboratively with the Irish Government to exploit existing opportunities. I am committed and look forward to continuing to deepen our relationship across the island, formally through the NSMC and informally. In doing so, we can better coordinate our efforts to invest in public services and delivery across the island. That is the best way to maximise the impact of our spending in order to deliver on our Programme for Government and our plan and to make real changes for the people whom we all represent.

1,470 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:55 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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