Shared Island Unit head Émer Deane: ‘An ordinary way of thinking’

As the Shared Island initiative enters a new phase, Ciarán Galway meets with Émer Deane – the Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Taoiseach with responsibility for the Shared Island Unit – at Government Buildings to talk role and remit, developments, and delivery.

Ciarán Galway (CG): For context, what is the role of the Shared Island Unit?

Émer Deane (ÉD): Currently comprising nine people – and in the process of expanding to 11 – the Shared Island Unit is housed here in the Department of the Taoiseach, though it is based in Dublin Castle. The Unit was established in 2020 to advance and coordinate the Shared Island initiative, which was announced by Micheál Martin during his previous tenure as Taoiseach.

The initiative itself has three broad strands to it: capital expenditure, the dialogue programme, and the research programme. Staffing aligns with those three pillars.

CG: What is the framework determining the Shared Island Unit’s interaction with Government and Executive departments?

ÉD: There is an interdepartmental group – which I chair – which brings together assistant secretaries from across government departments to examine and develop shared island projects.

In February 2025, with the Government’s announcement of an additional €1 billion out to 2035 for the Shared Island Fund, the Taoiseach wrote to all government ministers asking them to come forward with new proposals for new shared island projects by July of 2025. The Shared Island Unit is currently engaging with all government departments on developing proposals to meet that request.
CG: At the fourth Shared Island Forum on 10 April 2025, Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced a new phase of the Shared Island initiative. What does this mean for the unit?

ÉD: It means that the Shared Island initiative can think strategically out to 2035. Often, government departments do not have the privilege of timelines that are so long whereby time can be spent getting the strategic planning right in the knowledge that there will be time left to then deliver the project.

The National Development Plan is currently being reviewed. There was a Shared Island chapter in the previous iteration, and the Shared Island initiative – and all that the Government wants to achieve – will be reflected in the review, as the driver of a lot of infrastructure investment priorities for this jurisdiction.

The new phase is an opportunity to ensure that the Shared Island initiative is mainstreamed into government departments’ thinking over the period ahead, including through the reviewed National Development Plan. In terms of infrastructure and competitiveness, we share many of the same priorities. This matters on both sides of the border, and we can help to achieve the objectives of both the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland through the Shared Ireland initiative.

CG: What are the Shared Island Unit’s most significant successes to date?

ÉD: The most notable success of the initial phase was to ensure that long-standing commitments have now moved ahead. That gave a certain confidence that the Government’s Shared Island approach can tangibly deliver.

Secondly, we now have more policy planning and implementation jointly pursued by departments north and south. For instance, in the education sphere, the two ministers for education are working together in a substantive way on addressing educational under attainment, which again, is a step beyond what has happened previously.

Thirdly, again, for the very first time, InterTrade Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and Invest NI are undertaking substantive work and programmes together – with Shared Ireland initiative support – around female entrepreneurship and innovation in the border region and supporting green investment by firms.

We are now observing the benefits of cooperation that would not have happened without the Shared Island initiative.

CG: How does this overlap with the work of the North South Ministerial Council?

ÉD: When the Shared Island initiative launched towards the end of 2020, the institutions in the North were down and there was no North South Ministerial Council. However, it was important, even in those early days, to ensure that we continued to engage at official level with Executive departments in Northern Ireland.

Since the Northern Ireland Executive has been reestablished, ministers have been meeting their counterparts to develop ideas and programmes. The North South Ministerial Council has been back up and running since February 2024, and the first plenary meeting was in April that year. There was a second plenary in September, and the next one is in June 2025.

At these plenary and sectoral meetings, ministers often discuss Shared Island projects and propose ideas for new projects. The North South Ministerial Council is essential because it provides political direction. We in the Shared Island Unit are really pleased that it has resumed and that our work is recognised in that context and gets that political support and direction where required.

“We are in the most positive position in at least a decade, if not a generation, to really move forward on north/south cooperation.”

Émer Deane, Assistant Secretary, British and Northern Ireland Affairs Division, Department of the Taoiseach

CG: What emphasis does the Shared Island initiative place on civil society?

ÉD: The Shared Island Unit has its own dialogue strand whereby we organise events. For example, the Shared Island Youth Forum brought together 80 young people from across the island to set out their vision and their values for the future of this island. They did great work, meeting over the course of a year and reporting in September 2024.

We also had a Future Takes series in 2024, where we asked prominent people in civil society to answer the question: For a more reconciled island of Ireland, however it is constituted, what should we give and what could we gain in the years ahead? We got all sorts of perspectives.

Separate to that, we support a Shared Island Civic Society Fund which is administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in alignment with what is a key ambition of the Shared Island initiative; building more strategic links and connections between civic organisations north and south.

CG: In the context of the new programmes for government – north and south – what are the Shared Island Unit’s most significant strategic priorities currently?

ÉD: For the first time in 13 years, we have a new programme for government in this jurisdiction and a programme for government in Northern Ireland. As such, in determining our focus, we are looking at where there is an alignment between the two programmes.

In May 2025, we had a meeting of all the secretaries general from this jurisdiction with their permanent secretary counterparts in Northern Ireland to discuss the obvious areas for cooperation.

Two big themes were infrastructure and competitiveness. Within that, there was a particular emphasis on transport, skills, healthcare, disability, and innovation. We are not short of ideas, but departments must identify the right projects that make sense to deliver jointly – unlocking additionality or extra benefit by doing so. The task for me and the team now is to encourage, guide, and support departments to develop actual programmes and projects out of those ideas.

Of course, the Programme for Government has some specifics. We will take forward the specifics, for instance around research and improving the data available north and south, working with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Rail travel is another huge area of potential cooperation, and the All-Island Strategic Rail Review will inform what the next phases will be for both administrations, north and south.

CG: What is the significance of having a ring-fenced Shared Island Fund?

ÉD: It is important because it gives the assurance that, in all circumstances, all-island thinking is going to be embedded and resourced as part of government policy. Its multiannual nature allows us and departments to be more strategic, which is a privilege and a luxury that is not necessarily afforded in other policy areas. It also allows us the time to build relations and project proposals, working with counterparts in the Northern Ireland Executive, and with the British Government.

We are in the most positive position in at least a decade, if not a generation, to really move forward on north/south cooperation.

CG: How have relationships evolved?

ÉD: Following three years without the institutions in place, there is, of course, pressure for the Northern Ireland Executive to deliver in terms of public services. There is a greater openness than previously to use all partnerships to help drive that delivery forward, whether in partnership with the Irish Government, the British government, the US, or any other partner. So that is a more positive and fertile ground to work with than previously.

CG: What is your vision for the future of the Shared Island Unit?

ÉD: The most important thing is that all-island cooperation is not seen by either administration as an add on or a ‘nice to do’; rather it should become an ordinary way of thinking. That is the real task.

It would be a gamechanger if, for instance, in thinking about a major government focus – such as offshore renewable energy – we applied an all-island lens to the challenges and opportunities; planning to ensure we have the resilience, the skills capacity, and the supply chains required, north and south.

If you consider a major area of government policy focus currently, I would like to see it delivered in a way that, from the beginning, is framed in that sort of Shared Island thinking.