Keynote address by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Research on a Shared Island conference

Check against Delivery

Thank you, Alan (Barrett). Good morning, everyone.

I am very glad to participate in today’s conference, here in the heart of the transformed Dublin Docklands quarter where the Economic and Social Research Institute is based.

Tá ról ríthábhachtach ag an Institiúid, ó bunaíodh í sa bhliain 1960, maidir le taighde neamhspleách a sholáthar chun eolas a chur ar fáil do cheapadh beartais in Éirinn.

The ESRI has consistently made landmark contributions that have helped to inform how our course as a nation is set.

For instance, in examining membership of the European Economic Community in the mid-1960’s; on the expansion and reform of education at all levels in subsequent decades; on dealing with the challenges of Brexit over the last decade; and in providing evidence for the shaping of housing, climate and a range of other policies to meet the needs of our society today.

In a time of increased discord and reduced attention spans in public debate, the Institute is a respected, rigorous voice, contributing research and analysis that informs discussion and builds understanding of how in practical policy terms we can move forward.

That record and reputation have been crucial in the success of the ESRI’s joint research programme with my Department as part of the Shared Island Initiative over the last four years.

The programme has examined a wide range of social and economic issues of common concern for both jurisdictions on the island, for instance on education, productivity, primary healthcare and gender equality - to name just a few of the research projects undertaken.

I am delighted today to launch the 16th report under the programme, a report which importantly synthesises findings from all of the previous research under the joint ESRI/ Shared Island programme to date, and, in doing so, highlights the overarching implications for policy as we look to further deepen cooperation across the island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.

Earlier this month, I set out the Government’s priorities and approach for a new phase of the Shared Island Initiative.

Our Programme for Government sets out an ambitious agenda for continuing to build our shared island, backed by a further €1 billion investment in the Shared Island Fund out to 2035, to foster reconciliation, mutual respect and growth.

There has been a step-change achieved in deepening all-island co-operation and connections since I established the Initiative in 2020, enabled with over €500m allocated by Government from the Shared Island Fund by the end of last year.

Now, in a new phase, the Government is expanding the Initiative so that at every level and in all places we are sharing experience and building strong relationships, programmes and investments, to reach a new level of cooperation and understanding across this island.

Our strengthened partnership with the UK Government and positive engagement with the Northern Ireland Executive provides the most promising context we have had for years for harnessing what North-South and East-West partnerships can achieve. Additionally, we have built valuable partnerships with local authorities, education institutions and civil society organisations.

In February, the Government announced over €50 million from the Shared Island Fund for a series of major new cooperative programmes on sustainable tourism, arts and cultural heritage, civic society cooperation, and community-led nature restoration.

The Shared Island Initiative is now delivering the largest ever programme of North/South investment.

Research is essential to the entirety of the work we are progressing.

As I said when I established the Initiative, the Shared Island research programme is about gaining access to the best of ideas grounded in the strongest of evidence.

We need robust data to inform all-island investment and cooperation priorities, and as an input to civic and political discussions on how we build a shared future together on this island.

Shared Island research programme so far

The ESRI’s joint research programme with my Department has been at the forefront of this work.

Over the past four years it has paved the way in showing the need for, and benefit of, a sustained focus on research as we work to deepen island-wide cooperation and connections.

In many instances, the research undertaken has marked the first structured analysis that has been undertaken of the island as a whole - including the reports on child poverty, drivers of income inequality, and examining education systems and outcomes, North and South.

The programme has broken genuinely new ground and helped to fill gaps in knowledge that have been a barrier to identifying how we could work together more, both North/South and East/West, for mutual benefit.

This research has directly informed how we have developed the Shared Island Initiative.

For instance, the ESRI’s analysis of education systems and outcomes in 2022 confirmed the need for, and potential of, greater focus in cooperating on tackling educational disadvantage.

This work helped to guide the further development of our long-standing cooperation with the Executive on educational issues, through a major new €24m pilot cooperation programme on addressing educational underachievement, agreed by Education Ministers and commenced last year.

Similarly, the ESRI’s 2023 report on student mobility in Ireland and Northern Ireland was an important input which informed the Government’s view and subsequent decisions by Higher Education Institutions to change the CAO points assigned for A-Levels. The result is a greater number of students from the North now can apply to study in the South.

The ESRI’s research programme has helped to build the evidence base, and contributed to momentum and consensus for important, tangible improvements in how we share the island.

There are many more areas where we can, should and will place a similar focus in the time ahead, to benefit people across both parts of the island.

Overarching report

The huge untapped potential of all-island cooperation is a major takeaway from the ESRI’s overarching report on ‘Sharing the Island’ published today, drawing on evidence from the 15 preceding projects.

I want to congratulate the authors - Frances McGinnity, Adele Bergin, Seamus McGuinness, and Emer Smyth - on their work and report. It impressively distils a wide body of ESRI research to identify significant commonalities and differences across both jurisdictions on the island, and needs and opportunities for deeper cooperation going forward.

The report identifies where, both North and South, there are comparable challenges to address - including on tackling child poverty, reducing income inequality, and on improving the level and basis of women’s participation in the labour market across all cohorts.

The report is also clear on areas of difference, which are important to reflect on, in particular on the lower overall educational attainment, productivity, income and life expectancy trends in Northern Ireland.

Such findings are of course a cause of concern and an important reminder of the imperative of sustained, strategic action and delivery through the power-sharing institutions, as well as the North/South and East/West institutions of the Good Friday Agreement in their respective remits.

The sustained peace we enjoy must also mean increasing prosperity, opportunity and wellbeing for all. This is pivotal in achieving a more reconciled future for all communities on this island and will remain a core focus for the Government, as a co-guarantor with the UK Government, of the Good Friday Agreement.

Today’s report also identifies a number of important opportunities to look to and take learnings from policy and practice from each jurisdiction on the island.

For instance, on the positive impacts on reducing income inequality with the more progressive tax system in the South; and, the benefits associated with the longer-standing provision of free school meals in Northern Ireland.

These evidence-based learnings and comparisons are important in building a better understanding of how the island is configured today and how we can improve life North and South in the time ahead.

The report also rightly calls out that, while huge strides forward have been made, cross-border cooperation has so far failed to meet its full potential since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement twenty-seven years ago.

The authors note the clear advantages there are to substantially upscaling cooperation in education, health and environmental policy and in areas such as skills provision, foreign direct investment, labour market access and energy security.

This analysis aligns directly with the agenda we have set out in the Programme for Government for the new phase for the Shared Island Initiative, and through the Ireland-UK 2030 partnership which Prime Minister Starmer and I agreed as part of our Summit last month.

I want to see progress achieved in each of these areas, and more, in the time ahead.

Building on the momentum and confidence we have built, the Government will work every day with our Executive and UK Government counterparts to see that we harness the huge potential of the Agreement and its institutions and bodies to address challenges and take up opportunities that we face together across both jurisdictions.

New phase

This imperative of more strategic, sustained, impactful cooperation will be at the core of the new phase of the joint research programme between my Department and the ESRI on Shared Island, which I am very pleased to announce today.

With the success and impact of the research programme over the last number of years, the next phase will have an overarching focus on strategic policy and cooperation considerations for both jurisdictions on the island across all policy areas.

This will match the level of the Government’s political, resource and policy commitments to expand our Shared Island Initiative, so that we bring cooperation to a new level.

We will take up the exciting, essential opportunity there is now to move forward with a prosperity agenda for the whole island and achieve a deeper reconciliation in the time ahead, through the Good Friday Agreement.

With this goal, the need for non-partisan, trusted, authoritative published research to inform how we shape new cooperation programmes, allocate resourcing and build consensus and buy-in will be all the greater.

The new phase of the joint research programme with the ESRI on a Shared Island will be central to meeting that need.

Importantly also, the new phase will put an even stronger focus on dissemination and ensuring opportunities for engagement both North and South with research reports and findings.

This will contribute to the deepening engagement we are seeing now at all levels, including by local authorities and in civil society, through Shared Island programmes and beyond.

There will also be a focus in the research programme on core societal concerns, which have been insufficiently prominent in cooperation agendas.

I want to see this remedied in the time ahead and so I am very glad to also announce today that research through the programme this year and next will include a focus on: tackling gender-based violence; on disability; and on further education pathways.

A shared future on this island must mean a safe, equal, inclusive, promising future for all. It is essential that we work together more to achieve that in the time ahead.

As we look ahead to this new phase of the joint research programme on a Shared Island, I want to thank all at the ESRI, and their research partners in other institutions, who have been a part of this important work so far.

Your expertise has contributed to an unprecedented, vital, island-wide conversation and collaborative endeavour - one that we now continue, expand and strengthen for the time ahead.

Particular thanks to Adele Bergin who leads on the Shared Island programme implementation as part of her significant research output with the ESRI.

Thank you also to Anne Barrington for chairing the programme’s Steering Committee since its inception, bringing to bear her years of experience as a former Ambassador and a Joint Secretary of the North South Ministerial Council.

I also want to say a special word of appreciation to the Institute’s Director, Alan Barrett, who has been instrumental in the development and steering of the programme from the outset.

Alan has led the ESRI with distinction for ten years, successfully driving and developing the Institute’s research output, always with a focus on excellence, impartiality and relevance for policy making in this country.

I know that Alan will conclude his term as Director of the Institute in June, so I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge his dedication, impact, wisdom and unfailing good humour in providing analysis and insight on public policy issues of the day.

During Alan’s tenure, the ESRI has been to the fore as the authoritative provider of research for policy-makers - from dealing with Brexit, to managing the covid pandemic, to navigating current international economic challenges.

Alan, you have certainly led the Institute through interesting times since 2015, and I hope that your changing of roles now heralds calmer and more predictable times ahead!

Thank you for your immense work and I wish you every ongoing success in the many areas in which I know you will continue to contribute.

I also want to warmly congratulate Martina Lawless on her appointment as incoming ESRI Director, bringing a wealth of experience at the Institute and other organisations, to this most important role. I look forward to continued engagement with Martina and the entire team at the Institute.

Conclusion

Finally, and in closing, as I mentioned earlier, we are just a stone’s throw this morning from the ESRI’s headquarters in Whitaker Square, named after T. K. Whitaker, who played a major role in establishing the Institute in 1960 – also a dynamic and pivotal time for this country.

Ken Whitaker was also instrumental in the arrangement of the historic meeting at Stormont 5 years later, where Seán Lemass and Terence O’Neill agreed that we should be able to promote our respective constitutional objectives while also working together for shared development.

I established the Shared Island Initiative because I hold that same belief, that by working together, we can build a better future for everyone on this island, however it may be constituted.

In the years since, the significant progress we have seen in all-island investment and cooperation has benefitted from the rigorous work of the Shared Island research programme.

I am confident that the new phase of the ESRI Shared Island research programme will develop an evidence base and a dialogue that will enable us all to think bigger; plan better; and do more together - to benefit people across our shared island in the years ahead.

It will help light our way to a shared, reconciled future for all communities.

Thank you, all. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.