Brendan Smith on Peace Plus funding and further education

I welcome the fact that Linda Irvine is addressing a meeting of the Seannad. I think the last time we had engagement as a committee, I think we met Linda Irvine some years ago at the opening of the Skeanis Centre at the Newtownards Road. Deputy First Minister Mark McGuinness and First Minister Peter Robinson at the time were doing the official opening and we were there that day and did a great day for that community and for the different funding programmes and I know our own Department of Foreign Affairs were a substantial contributor to that development as well from recollection. I welcome and I have had plenty of engagement with your body over the years and there has been great progress since the initial Peace 1 programme and the different Peace 1 and the other programmes have occurred and I think you are in a very exciting phase now and the fact that there is such a very, very substantial allocation for for the Peace Plus programme, there is a very substantial commitment in our national development plan for cross border projects, the highest ever and also the shared island. So there is a huge pool of resources there and I think hopefully at the end of the designated period that we are not looking at an underspend. So I think we are into a time where it would be great to get the programmes up and running fast and I welcome the fact that you said Gina that you hope to be writing applications by summer time of this year which is great and I know you have been engaging with communities and some of us tried to participate in the feedback that you wanted as well. And I think over the years from the very first Peace 1 and I think over the years from the very first Peace Programme there was a great effort to engage communities and I remember going to many, I am sure Deputy O'Dowd did at the time as well, go to many public meetings and small community centres where people were striving to enhance existing poor facilities and parish halls. And we saw them become very substantial resource community centres that have really been a great addition to the local community, facilitating classes, facilitating meetings, recreation and sporting activities. And I have to say the Peace 1 and its successor programmes have played an enormous role in bringing that new social investment into communities, in the communities that you spoke about, that Deputy Rose spoke about as well in relation to areas that were traditionally deprived of the and disadvantaged and disadvantaged. So it is important that we continue that work. You might give us an outline later, what would be the breakdown in relation to capital and current funding? Initially, to my recollection, the first Peace 1 was very much bricks and mortar, putting in place projects and you know that followed on literally from the International Fund for Ireland or working alongside the then International Fund for Ireland. And I welcome the fact that you have a heavy emphasis quite rightly on the whole education provision. We have had different witnesses before this committee in recent times and it is alarming the lack of skills in a substantial cohort of the population in Northern Ireland and in some communities here too and that is an area that needs to be addressed. You mentioned the fact that South West College won an award in the climate area and I think that was recognised at the climate summit in Glasgow and I understand for some students attending South West College in NS Gillan and also some people have been in the college that is a fabulous facility and congratulations to everybody who have contributed to that welcome piece of infrastructure, education and infrastructure. One thing that I raised with the Taoiseach in questions and also with our Minister for Father and Higher Education, the need to grow the further education sector on an all Ireland cross border basis. I think above all sectors of education training and the provision of skills, the colleges of further education have been key to ensuring that people progress in education. I have seen so many young people who did not finish their form on second level education, maybe go back to second chance education in the youth read centres, then go on to further education, get good awards from those colleges and many of them thankfully today going on getting their primary degrees and some doing post grads as well. So I think we need as a country both north and south to lay a greater emphasis on the importance of the further education sector. Both the Taoiseach and Minister Harris committed to me that they would be very interested in having a more formal structure in relation to the provision of further education on an all Ireland basis. That can be tied in with the Shared Island initiative with the substantial funding that our new designated Department of Father and Higher Education has. I think maybe your body could give some lead or underpin that work as well. I know myself and I am sure every one of us public representatives at this meeting know of so many young people who did not get the best start in education at maybe a primary and second level but then went on through further education and did extremely well thankfully for themselves, their families and for their community. So I believe that we should have a greater emphasis and I am thinking again being much influenced by where we all come from ourselves. We have a very good college, a further education cabin institute. You have a very good college in Enniskillen. You have other colleges around the border area. I believe that there is a great scope for more collaboration and ensuring that we are not competing with one another, that we are complementing each other and that we ensure that the relevant education provision is made for students on a cross-border basis. I think there is great potential there. And again, it is to try to reach the people who are hardest to reach and who have got least qualifications. I think that is very, very important. And you mentioned in your opening remarks, Gina, about the need to promote social inclusion, particularly for those at the margins of economic and social life. And I welcome the fact that there is an emphasis in the new Peace Plus programme on that. And again, in different Dáil debates, the Minister of Public Expandition, Deputy Michael McGrath, told Dáil different locations that there would be a substantial commitment to ensuring that the needs of people at the margins or the people who have not got the opportunities for education and for employment that we all want to see, that they would be heavily supported through this particular programme. You mentioned as well in your contribution about a renewed focus on rural and border communities, support regeneration and re-imaging of rural areas that have been most effective from a lack of investment for decades. I think we are now in a new era. We have substantial money, thankfully, available for these programmes. But we have also a new mindset in regard of what can be done in rural Ireland. You don't have to be in the centre of Dublin, centre of Belfast or the centre of Derry or any other major urban area to provide services throughout all of Ireland. We've seen that forced upon people during the pandemic. And there has to be more and more opportunities for people to work from the local hubs, work from their homes. And I believe, you know, our smaller towns and villages can be really regenerated so they can. And I think because in most instances there are powerful strengths in our rural communities. We might speak in the Dáil every day about the lack of investment in our rural communities and what they need. And we can stand up those arguments. But at the same time, if we do an examination on the positive side in regard of what our communities have, by and ours there are good schools at primary and second level, good preschool education. There are our football and hurling clubs and other sporting facilities as well. And also alongside that, the community centres, the parish halls, etc. So there's a huge infrastructure in place in Ireland already. It maybe needs a top up or it may be a re-imaging of some of that. And I think that would help to bring more people back to live in those communities, away from the hustle and bustle and hassle of urban life with traffic and with every other, and particularly the cost of housing, etc. So I think those types of initiatives that you speak about can really make a difference, can make in our rural and more remote areas much more attractive for people to come live and work. And also hopefully for people with new job opportunities to come to create in those areas as well. So I really wish you well with the project and I compliment you again on you always going out and getting the views of communities. I think that has been a great strength in the different programmes since the late 1990s. And that's the way it needs to continue. But if you have an opportunity, if you have the figures available, you might just break down between the capital and the current spending. One issue I raised here a number of weeks ago was the Wider Horizons programme was an initiative funded under the International Fund for Ireland. That was run in the 1990s, where say youth clubs in Northern Ireland had a sister club in our jurisdiction, vice versa. They shared different programmes. Students from the north came south, vice versa. Then there were international trips abroad where they went and there were host families in the States, Australia, whatever. They were extremely important. And I know many instances those students have remained in contact. So if there were similar type programmes envisaged, I think they would be beneficial. Thank you very much. Very interesting. Thank you.