6. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach the measures to promote engagement of organisations from outside the border counties in the shared island initiative. [61373/26]

The Shared Island Initiative is a sustained, strategic investment by the Government to deepen island-wide cooperation and societal connections to build a shared future with all communities and political traditions on this island.

The Initiative is backed by the Government’s Shared Island Fund, a total €2 billion commitment out to 2035, to foster reconciliation, mutual respect and growth. Over €1 billion has been allocated by Government from the Fund to date, enabling over 50 major projects and programmes that delivery our objectives and commitments on Shared Island, as set out in the Programme for Government and the revised National Development Plan.

A major focus of the Shared Island programmes operated by Government Departments and Agencies is to support and enable deeper and new cross-border cooperation and connections across all counties on the island. There are now dedicated Shared Island programmes to support organisations across the island to work together in civil society; arts and culture; heritage; creativity; research and innovation; environmental conservation; bioeconomy development; and entrepreneurship.

Also, the Shared Home Place (SHP) programme, which commenced this year, invites people across the island - and beyond - to explore, through a heritage and culture lens, the question: What does a Shared Home Place mean to you - past, present, and future? As part of this participative community initiative, work is underway by the Heritage Council to develop a programme to promote public engagement and participation on SHP themes through local libraries, museums, archives and galleries across the island, as well as to establish an island-wide Local Government Heritage Network, which launched on 2 September. The Shared Island Diaspora Voices initiative is being led by Ireland’s Mission Network abroad to invite the diaspora to be an active part of the dialogue on what a Shared Home Place means, and there are also Shared Home Place dimensions to the Shared Island Cultural Cooperation Scheme, Creative Ireland-Shared Island programme and the Shared Island Media Fund.

These programmes are all contributing to the goal of encouraging people from all places, generations and backgrounds on this island to collaborate in new ways on their common concerns to build a shared future together.

Further information on each of the above programmes as part of the Shared Island Initiative is set out in tabular form below.