We can’t change the past, but we can work together for a shared future on this island
TODAY in Dublin Castle I am launching the Government’s Shared Island initiative and I look forward to people making their contributions to shaping a shared island in the period ahead.
The continuing impact of the Covid pandemic has reminded us in ways that we never expected just how interdependent we are on the island of Ireland in our society and economy – and how we need to work together on the shared challenges we face.
The Good Friday Agreement provides the indispensable framework for how we do that together – in Northern Ireland, North-South, and East-West across these islands. Working in meaningful ways to achieve reconciliation is fundamental to the power of the Good Friday Agreement. It is central to the Government’s commitment to work with all communities and traditions on the island to build consensus around a shared future.
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. We can all work together for a shared future without in any way relinquishing our equally legitimate ambitions and beliefs – nationalist, unionist or neither.
This is the transformational potential that the Good Friday Agreement holds for us all on this island. I believe it is time to renew our commitment to building that truly shared future. This is how the Government will work towards a consensus on a shared island.
Shared Island is a wholeof-Government priority and the Shared Island unit in my department will be a driver for this work. It is a broad, positive and practical agenda.
All sections of society of all identities – North and South, East and West – can engage with this fully and confidently.
These are unprecedented and uncertain times, and we face major challenges on this island: overcoming the threat of the Covid pandemic; Brexit; economic recovery; and tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis.
These are shared challenges.
The Government will work in partnership with the Executive, through the North South Ministerial Council and with the British Government so that we tackle them on this island together. We will also foster constructive and inclusive dialogue and support a programme of research so that we have access to the best of ideas grounded in the strongest of evidence.
In Budget 2021 last week, the Government announced the Shared Island Fund, with a planned €500m to be made available over the next five years out to 2025. The Shared Island Fund provides significant new, ringfenced, multi-annual capital funding for investment on a strategic basis in collaborative North/ South projects that will support the commitments and objectives of the Good Friday Agreement.
The funding will foster new investment and development opportunities on a North/ South basis and support the delivery of key cross-border infrastructure initiatives set out in the Programme for Government. It also opens the way for investment in new shared initiatives in areas such as research, health, education and the environment, and for addressing the particular challenges of the North West and Border communities. Through the Shared Island Fund we will make the investments needed to meet our level of ambition to build a shared island and deliver results on a collaborative North/South basis.
Today, I am launching online a series of Shared Island Dialogues that will foster constructive and inclusive engagement on all aspects of our shared future. The Government wants to hear people’s ideas, questions, concerns, fears and hopes for the future. The Dialogue series will start next month and engage with key issues, including environment, the economy and fostering education and artistic and cultural exchange.
They will also seek views on an inclusive basis on overarching concerns for the agreement including around issues such as identity rights and the equality agenda on the island.
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. There are 1.3 million young people living on this island who have been born since 1998 – their views and actions are fundamental to our shared future. That’s why the first Shared Island Dialogue will be ‘New generations and new voices on the Good Friday Agreement’.
I also believe we need to see more reflection in the South, so that we look at preconceptions, mutual understandings, challenges and opportunities for our shared future on the island. There are challenging questions for all of us.
The Government is ready to play our part and will support a positive, inclusive discourse and agenda on a shared future for this island, founded on the Good Friday Agreement.
We can’t change the past, but we can work for a shared future.
A future that we can be proud of for our children and grandchildren on our shared island.