Varadkar hopes investment in Ulster University campus deepens cross-border links

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

The Taoiseach has said that he hopes investment in an Ulster University campus will strengthen cross-border links.

He insisted that there was “no ulterior motive” to €44.5 million being provided to build a new teaching and student services building for Ulster University.

This is part of the Irish Government’s €56 million funding from the Shared Island Fund, aimed at cross-border investments.

A new youth forum will also be set up as part of the Shared Island initiative, which will ask 80 young people both north and south of the border to set out their vision for the island from September.

Speaking at Government Buildings in Dublin on Tuesday: “It is money that we committed in the past as part of the New Decade, New Approach agreement.

“We’ve made previous commitments as well… which we will honour.

“So, long before there was a Shared Island Unit, we were making a contribution to infrastructure projects that benefit Northern Ireland, but also has a cross-border element as well, and Shared Island really is the development of that.

“And I’m very straightforward, very genuine about this.

“There’s no ulterior motive here. We’re doing this because we want there to be more north-south cooperation. We want more cross-border cooperation.

“We want for example, to have a much bigger university campus in Derry, that students from all over the island, and people from Britain and other parts of the world, come to, and I hope that happens.

“We want to improve connectivity, whether it’s the Dublin Belfast railway line, whether it’s the A5, and these are things that benefit Northern Ireland.

“These are things that benefit people in Ireland as a whole and that’s why we’re doing them.”