“I will be launching a new phase of the government’s Shared Island Initiative on 10 April - the anniversary of the signing of the transformational Good Friday Agreement.

“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.

“In February, the government announced over €50 million from the Shared Island Fund for new programmes on sustainable tourism; arts and cultural heritage; civic society cooperation; and community-led nature restoration.

“At the Shared Island Forum today, I will be marking the step-change achieved in deepening all-island co-operation and connections since the inception of the Shared Island Initiative, and will look ahead to the next phase of building a shared future together on the island of Ireland.

“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 partnership can deliver.

“I will be setting out how we will take up this exciting, essential opportunity to develop each of the complementary and interconnecting relationships of our Good Friday Agreement - through our shared political institutions and right across society.

“We will commence a new dimension to the Shared Island Initiative this year - the ‘Shared Home Place’ programme. This will be open to people across every corner of the island of Ireland to build new connections and consensus on our place-based heritage.

“Shared Home Place will engage in particular with the contributions of Irish, Anglo-Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions across the island of Ireland and with those of Irish communities in Britain and further afield. We want to better acknowledge how these are all integral parts of the heritage of the island today and crucial to how we build reconciliation into the future.”