Taoiseach’s cross-border initiative to set a ‘positive and practical’ agenda

TAOISEACH Micheál Martin is seeking to create a Shared Island where nationalists and unionists can work together “without in any way relinquishing our equally legitimate ambitions and beliefs”.

Writing in today’s Irish Independent ahead of a first meeting of its kind on the future of the island, Mr Martin said: “A Shared Island is a whole-ofGovernment priority”.

“The Shared Island unit in my department will be a driver for this work. It is a broad, positive and practical agenda,” he said.

“All sections of society of all identities – North and South, East and West – can engage with this fully and confidently,” he added.

The comments come as Mr Martin will today host the first of his Shared Island Dialogue sessions in Dublin Castle.

More than 800 people from across the island have signed up to the virtual meeting that will hear from a range of voices and backgrounds from across the two jurisdictions.

Those invited include the leaders of all the main political parties along with religious leaders from south and north of the Border.

The Taoiseach’s Office said the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was invited and had accepted an invitation, as had Sinn Féin.

However, a DUP spokesperson said last night: “We were notified of the speech and given log-in details but (explained that) doing so would depend on schedule. We want to have sensible NorthSouth co-operation based on mutual respect.”

The Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland John McDowell have accepted invitations to the event.

Businesses leaders, lobby groups and representatives of minorities have also been invited.

While today’s event is a large gathering, it is hoped smaller meetings between individual groups will be arranged in the future.

Mr Martin hopes to hold dialogue sessions on a shared island at least once a month.

The smaller meetings will be treated confidentially to allow people to speak frankly about how better co-operation can be achieved between the two jurisdictions.

The meetings will focus on the key challenges facing the island including the Covid-19 pandemic and the following economic recovery as well as the climate and biodiversity crisis facing the world.

“We want to work in partnership through the North South Ministerial Council and with the British government to tackle these together for the benefit of all,” a Government spokesperson said.

“We are determined to deliver a reinvigorated, more ambitious and practical agenda,” she added.

In last week’s Budget, the Government announced a Shared Island Fund of €500m over the next five years.

The funding will be mostly spent on cross-border infrastructure projects such as the A5, Narrow Water Bridge,

Derry-Belfast-Dublin-Limerick-Cork high-speed rail, Sligo-Enniskillen Greenway and the Ulster Canal connection.

Mr Martin also wants to utilise the Good Friday Agreement which allows for more cross-border co-operation.

“The genius of the Agreement is that our relations on the island do not need to be defined or dominated by constitutional questions, as they were in the past,” he writes today.

“I want to ensure we hear from voices that are not always heard in these discussions, from women, young people and new communities on the island,” he says.