Government to give €5m to the International Fund for Ireland

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has announced the allocation of €5 million to the International Fund for Ireland.

Mr Flanagan said the funding was to “support its work on reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border counties in the South”.

The Minister last week visited a peace walls project in Belfast assisting local residents to safely and appropriately remove peace walls in their area.

The peace walls programme is one of the projects run by the fund which was established as an independent organisation in 1986 by the British and Irish governments.

Mr Flanagan also reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to part-funding the development of the A5 motorway to improve access to the northwest.

He was speaking during a debate on the recently decided Stormont House Agreement, reached between the parties in the North and the two governments. He expressed disappointment that a commitment to an Irish Language Act “either enacted in Westminster or the Northern Ireland Assembly, did not form part of the final agreement”.

‘Enabling consensus’

He also regretted that “the necessary enabling consensus was not forthcoming during the Stormont talks” to establish a North-South Consultative Forum and a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

But he said the agreement “represents the articulation of the next essential steps towards reconciliation and economic renewal”. During the debate Taoiseach Enda Kenny reiterated the Government’s commitment to continuing to play its part on the North, including working with the Northern Executive “to deliver even closer political, economic, and social co-operation.

‘Economic co-operation’

“We are committed to working for even greater cross-Border economic co-operation to accelerate growth and secure the creation of jobs on this island.”

He said the Government would continue its close contact with the British government “to pursue our common custodianship of the agreements in support of the Northern Ireland peace process”.

He made his comments as Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams claimed the Government was the “most deficient, inefficient and incompetent in dealing with the North” of any Irish administration he had dealt with since taoiseach Charlie Haughey.

Mr Adams told Mr Kenny: “You Taoiseach, see the North as a foreign country. Rather than facing across the Border, extending a hand of friendship to all people of the North, you face away from the Border and turn your back on the people there.”

He called on Mr Kenny to reflect on this and to “develop a strategy to fully implement the Good Friday agreement and other agreements as you are obliged to do”.

Tánaiste Joan Burton praised her predecessor Eamon Gilmore for his involvement in the negotiations. She said “the fact that we have an agreement now in place is no small part due to the efforts that Eamon made – often behind the scenes – during his time in office.”

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said it was “very risky and premature” to move the parades issue into the political sphere and that it would cause political instability in the future.