North-South Ministerial Council
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-21
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

That is right. I welcome, as the Deputy did, the all-island apprenticeship formally launched by myself, the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Lawless and Minister Archibald in Farmleigh on Friday. I thank and commend the Minister, Deputy Lawless for his work on this too.
As the Deputy also rightly said, all of this takes place in a context and the context is much better when the relationship between the two Governments in Ireland and the UK is good. That reset has assisted. It is also the case when the relationship between the UK and the EU is good. That relationship, and the reset taking place with regard to the agreement on a new framework and the benefits there will be for the island of Ireland and Northern Ireland, is helpful too.
It is about embedding, after stops and starts over the years, the good areas of co-operation that we have. We have a long pipeline of projects. The Deputy is right in that the investment should be seen as an enabler for conversations and co-operation rather than investment for investment's sake. I will give the Deputy one very quick example in the north west, where you are going to see the Magee campus in Derry developed. That is a huge opportunity for partnership with Letterkenny and Atlantic Technological University, ATU, and many benefits will come to the north west of the island from that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:15+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-21