Debate contribution: North/South Bodies: Funding

Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on 27 May 2025.

MLA: Mr Declan Kearney
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 27 May 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: North/South Bodies: Funding
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4972223

Text

I beg to move
It almost beggars belief that a party in our power-sharing coalition should have to be urged to reconsider its opposition to accepting additional funding that would support the promotion of cooperation on food safety, environmental management, trade and business development, peace and reconciliation, tourism and the promotion of language and culture. The DUP's opposition is even more absurd when we know that acceptance of such funding for that vital work from the Irish Government would actually come without the requirement for reciprocal funding from the Executive, but that is the ridiculous situation that the motion before the Assembly this afternoon has to address. The DUP's obstruction on this matter is totally inexplicable. In the present context of unprecedented pressures on public finances, it defies belief that any party would block additional financial investment into North/South bodies that provide employment and services in this region. The fact is that Tory, and now continued Labour, austerity and chronic underfunding of the North by the British Treasury has cut the lining out of our public services. Alongside an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the repercussions are impacting across society, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community. The facts should not have to be rehearsed, but our health service is in systemic crisis, with the worst waiting lists on record, and working families cannot pay their bills. There is no surprise that this or any British Government will find billions of pounds to invest in their own military and industrial complex or to fund weapons of mass destruction used to arm the Israeli murder machine in Gaza and the West Bank while systematically undermining public services and then causing increased hardship for workers and families here in the North, because English politicians do not care about any of the people who live here. Those are the circumstances within which the DUP chooses to block potential additional funding from the Irish Government for our North/South bodies. The ongoing research from S2@25, a project supported by PEACE PLUS, records that North/South implementation bodies have made a significant contribution to daily life across the island during the past 25 years, delivering better outcomes for the economy, health, environment and culture. InterTradeIreland has played a vital role in identifying opportunities for collaboration, innovation and investment throughout the island. Cross-border trade, now in the region of a record €15 billion, is evidence of its work. It has promoted economic growth, which promotes and improves the everyday lives of workers and families all over the island, particularly in our cross-border communities. Tourism Ireland is central to promoting the island all around the world, attracting up to €6·4 billion into the Irish economy with eight million visitors, up to 25% of whom travel north. All the North/South bodies, including Waterways Ireland, the Food Safety Promotion Board, InterTradeIreland, Tourism Ireland, the Special EU Programmes Body, Foras na Gaeilge and Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch have had a positive impact in improving lives. Increased funding for those bodies can only bring more innovation and investment, better food standards and environmental initiatives, improved promotion of our indigenous languages and increased tourism, so I pose the question: what is going on? Is this a case of DUP economic illiteracy, or is this intended to be an act of financial self-harm upon an already cash-strapped Executive within which the DUP has three full Ministries? Have our DUP colleagues decided to simply cut off their noses to spite their faces, in that, of course, DUP supporters will be adversely affected by the consequences flowing from that party's decision? Or is this, perhaps, some type of bizarre plan cooked up by the DUP leadership outside this place in order to undermine the North/South implementation bodies and, by extension, strand two of the Good Friday Agreement? Perhaps it is none of those things at all. Maybe we will find out today what is really going on. I hope that we will be enlightened. This much, however, is sure: the DUP's blocking of additional North/South funding in the Executive is wrong-headed, foolish and absolutely indefensible. The DUP really should wise up.

685 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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