Building the shared island
Taoiseach Micheál Martin marked one year of the Shared Island Initiative in December 2021 with a week of events surveying the work that has been done and is to be done on government investment in a more connected Ireland.
Key to the building of a more connected Ireland are the infrastructure projects being undertaken with funding from the Government’s Shared Island Fund and other sources. All-island investment was one of the more notable revisions within the revised National Development Plan (NDP) published in October 2021, where a commitment to allocating ring-fenced capital resourcing for all-Ireland investment to 2030 “at least at the current level of the Shared Island Fund”.
Shared island investment priorities in the NDP include: the creation of an Ireland-wide greenway network; the enhancement of rail connectivity; coordinated investment in the rollout of electric vehicle charging networks; funding all-island climate actions; enhancing support for all-Ireland enterprise development; the creation of new all-island research centres; the further development of third-level education infrastructure in the north west; and new cross-border infrastructure built and natural heritage initiatives.
Thus far, the Shared Island Fund has been allocated to numerous infrastructure projects, chief among them the revitalisation of the Ulster Canal, which runs through counties Armagh, Fermanagh, Monaghan, and Tyrone. More than €12 million was allocated to the project in April 2021 from the Shared Island Fund and the rural Regeneration Fund for phase two of the project, and a further €1 million from the Shared Island Fund for phase three. The project is due for completion in 2023.
Also funded is the Narrow Water Bridge project, brought to tender by a July 2021 allocation of €3 million from the Shared Island Fund. The Taoiseach has committed to providing further funding once final costs for the project are determined.
One of the more significant allocations from the Shared Island Fund has been the €40 million pledged to the North-South Research Programme in July 2021. The programme will “support the deepening of links between higher education institutions, researchers, and research communities on the island of Ireland, delivering all-island approaches to research and innovation, and open to all disciplines and research areas”. This comprehensive approach to research has already borne fruit with the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) having published a series of secretariat papers on the shared island concept as well as a report on collaboration on climate and biodiversity; the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has also published research on increasing cooperation, cross-border trade in services and foreign direct investment on both sides of the border. The NESC and ESRI plan to publish a comprehensive report to government on the Shared Island initiative and a report on education and healthcare respectively in 2022.
