Brendan Smith presses for all-Ireland education and research push

As we know, the Good Friday Agreement established a number of All-Ireland implementation bodies, including the promotion of tourism on an all-Ireland basis and also the management of waterways. At that time, a number of areas were identified for further collaboration and cooperation on an all-Ireland basis, including education. Unfortunately, that has not been given the priority in the meantime, north or south, that it needs to have. I believe that there is an opportunity now, particularly with the Shared Island Initiative, to drive forward the whole area of teaching and learning and research on a cross-border and all-Ireland basis. So I would like the Minister to outline specific measures that he would implement to drive that agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Alaskan-Chorla. I want to thank Deputy Smith for the question and his obvious interest and commitment to this issue as a Border Deputy and indeed as a long-serving member of this House. I strongly believe, as does this Government, that there is huge potential for enhanced north-south collaboration across the further and higher, and I'd say further and higher education sectors and the research system. This is an issue that I personally attached huge priority to. I have had many, many meetings with counterparts in Northern Ireland, with the STLP in Northern Ireland. I've had an engagement with Deputy Coy Walsh on it. I've met the British Ambassador on it. It's an issue I really, really believe that we need to make a lot of progress on, because such cooperation can better understand, help us better understand people and community, as well as the benefits to education and research as well. Just this week, the Taoiseach and I launched a dedicated north-south research programme, which will provide a €40 million fund for research collaboration as part of the the Shared Island Initiative. I sincerely want to thank the Taoiseach for this work. This is funded through the Shared Island Unit and his department and his personal commitment to this as well. This is an initiative that will be managed by the Higher Education Authority on behalf of my department, and it will support collaboration amongst individual researchers north and south, also amongst research teams north and south, and institutions north and south. The requirement for taking part is there must be somebody in the north and somebody in the republic. This is going to, no doubt, help research, but it's also going to help build those relationships. We're committed to working collaboratively to ensure the delivery of commitments and made new decade, new approach. This includes supporting the development of all island research hubs, as well as facilitating close collaboration between education providers, including potential capital investment in Magee, and I'll probably get to come back in on this in a moment, but we need concrete proposals, because the Irish government and the British government both gave solemn commitments under new decade, new approach to the development of Magee, and I want to deliver on that as well. Officials from my department are also working closely with colleagues in the development of the development of the cross-border skills initiative, and for the very first time, Ireland has included a skills initiative on a cross-border basis in the forthcoming Peace Plus programme, which will offer further opportunities in both the further and higher education space. Thank you, Alaskhan Corlan. I thank the Minister for his positive response and his determination to make progress in this whole particular area. I represent a constituency where, fortunately, we have two good colleges of further education, both Cavan and Monaghan. Minister, you may recall in the virtual meeting we had at Cavan Institute, that we spoke again about the potential for cooperation. In our neighbouring counties, we have institutes of further education, Enniskill and OMA, long established, teaching to a high standard. And I believe that there is the potential there to cooperate and that cross-border all Ireland bases. And as we know, further education is of huge importance, particularly to the less advantaged communities as well. I know that some communities in Northern Ireland will talk that they have not benefited from the Good Friday Agreement. And unfortunately, many people haven't got the education attainment or the skills that they need. And I have seen through my own constituency work, the value that there is, maybe people who didn't complete second level education, getting a second chance going on to further education and subsequently getting a pathway to higher education and to good employment. We must drive that agenda north and south. Minister to reply. Absolutely. And I really do believe, Deputy Smith, that the Peace Plus initiative and the skills programme there, the cross-border skills programme, will possibly be the first time we have ever had to do that at scale and with a degree of intensity that perhaps has been lacking in the past. So I'm very much looking forward to that. That's a programme that will be finalised this year. And I think it will give that opportunity, not just at the higher education space, but also at the skills space, where there's an awful lot of people living on both sides of the border, around border counties, where we know there's going to be a massive need for upskilling, for reskilling, for preparing people for new jobs as well and for the disruption that is coming to the economy. So I intend to seek a meeting with the new Minister for the Economy in the north. I congratulate him on his appointment this week to look at how we can work together on advancing some of those commitments. I knew you would mention the Cavan Institute because I know it's very, very important to you and I was delighted we had that virtual meeting. Look forward to us making progress together on the capital commitments to Cavan as well and visiting there with you shortly. And I should say my colleague Minister Collins will be leading on our apprenticeship action plan, which also has commitments around all island apprenticeships for the first time ever. So let's very much keep in touch on this agenda. I think there's a huge opportunity to do stuff in this space. Deputy Smith, thank you very much Minister. I know of my colleague Minister Collins' work in the whole apprenticeship area and I welcome that. Minister, I welcome very much your commitment in regard to Magee and that great cooperation that there is between Letterkenny Institute and Magee College. And listening to the Director of Letterkenny Institute and to the President of Magee College, it's heartening to know the level of cooperation going on there in the North West. In the North East similarly, we've had very good cooperation between Dundalk Institute and Queen's and the University of Ulster. And I know that they undertook research projects. They undertook a big one between Dundalk and Ulster University in the whole area of renewable energy and also between Queen's and Dundalk in the whole area of COPD disease. So what is already in place can be built upon. And one very interesting project, and maybe it's one that your department should give some consideration as to, that Dundalk Institute carried out a research project on the whole area of improving pathways from further education to higher education, including on a cross-border basis. One thing in politics, I was the chair of the first board of Cameron College of Further Studies and it gives me great pleasure and a sense of attainment when I see the numbers going through that college and the people who are getting a pathway to further education or a pathway to good work. So that whole area of further education, we need to maximise its potential to the greatest extent possible. Thank you. Absolutely. On that pathway's point, I mean, you and I met a guy called Jack and I tell Jack's story everywhere I go because Jack went and got his first choice in the CAO, started his degree like lots of people it wasn't for him. Jack then decided to leave that, he went back to Cavan, he did a year of pre-law in Cavan, got a great grounding in law, decided this is for me. And now Jack starts in Maynooth doing his law degree in September. That is what colleges of further education like the one in Cavan can do. And we've got to get them to parity and inequity here in terms of recognition of the ability that they have to transform lives. On research, look, I fully agree with you. What the Taoiseach has done this week is potentially transformational with the €40 million allocation. Because the scale of that level of funding will really enable us to do an awful lot more on research on a north-south basis. And you're right, we're not starting from scratch. And I think this can be a precursor to the delivery of all island research centres, which is a key commitment of this government. And in relation to Magee, we remain fully committed. We need clear proposals that we can fund and then we need to get on with funding it. And I've had a number of meetings with Magee in relation to that. Thank you.