Taoiseach to note challenges of Troubles legacy at forum

The Taoiseach is to tell the fifth forum of his Shared Island Initiative of the need to acknowledge that the legacy of the Troubles causes immense challenges for society.

Micheál Martin's address this morning in Dublin follows the announcement of €377 million in 12 cross border projects, which brought total allocations to €1 billion from the total €2bn committed so far by the Government for the initiative.

Mr Martin will say "there remains a need for a sustained, strategic focus" on "investing in the future across both jurisdictions in far more ambitious and integrated ways", given the connections and "interdependence".

The Taoiseach will remind those present of the need to acknowledge that the legacy of the Troubles causes immense and continuing challenges for society in Northern Ireland in particular, including the scourge of residual paramilitarism.

He will talk of the "essential" work of the Irish and British governments on agreed framework for dealing with legacy.

This comes ahead of the election of a new British prime minister following the repairing of Irish-Anglo relations under the premiership of Keir Starmer.

Mr Martin will say "there persists also a zero-sum identity politics in Northern Ireland that does as little for the communities it is purported to serve" or for "advancing anyone's aspirations for the constitutional future of this island".

He will also point to the enormous role the EU played in peace on the island, not just through lip service, but important projects like PeacePlus.

The remarks will come amid preparations for Ireland to assume the EU Presidency.

"And like the peace process itself, this is work that continues- in Brussels, Dublin, Belfast and London," Mr Martin's speech states.

Yesterday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke of the need to prepare for a united Ireland at the party's annual Wolfe Tone commemoration

"A united Ireland is about collapsing division and bringing the people of this island together to shape a better for all," she said.

She added: "Tone taught that ordinary Catholics, Protestants and dissenters had far more in common with one another than with those who sought to keep them apart.

"That lesson is as important today as it was then."