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With barriers to the movement of people coming down all across Europe, a seminar on 8 August 2008 considered how the experience of the advice and information project Borderwise can inform the future development and delivery of cross border information in the island of Ireland.
Jointly run and managed by Citizens Advice and the Citizens Information Board with European funding, Borderwise has pooled the infrastructure and resources of both agencies to develop innovative ways of delivering cross border advice and information to those who need it - frontier workers, people moving from one jurisdiction to the other, and people buying and selling goods across the border.
The project can be accessed from www.borderwise.ie or www.borderwise.org.
Pat Colgan, the Chief Executive of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), will delivered the keynote speech and highlighted the impact of Peace 2 programmes and the development of 2007-13 funding
streams.
Derek Alcorn, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice in Northern Ireland said:
The project has established the basic architecture for an integrated advice service across the island. In the week in which it has been estimated that the strength of the Euro has brought an extra £7m of spending into Belfast the economic consequences of encouraging people to move about the island could not be underestimated.
"We have established that it is possible to train staff in the legislation of both jurisdictions, that it is possible to deploy staff across both jurisdictions, that it is possible to share information databases electronically and to develop a common electronic case recording system for use in both jurisdictions. Much of this has been very cost effective because of the significant infrastructure which each agency has brought to the project.
"This infrastructure includes a network of community based offices North and South, the skills and experience of frontline advice staff, and a pooling of expertise and knowledge in technology, training
and information."
Tony McQuinn, CEO -designate, Citizens Information Board said:
The increase in the mobility of people across the border in recent years is a very positive development, although many practical and bureaucratic difficulties remain. The Borderwise Project, developed by Citizens Advice Northern Ireland and the Citizens Information Board, has identified many of these difficulties and has produced information resources and provided direct support to information providers and the public to guide people through the complexity of dealing with two jurisdictions.
From a public policy perspective the social policy reports generated from the feedback of service users will be an invaluable source of evidence to help formulate policies that meet the real needs of people and so promote greater mobility."
The work of the project aims to support and enhance the capacity of advice and information services in the border region to respond to the complexity of advice and information needs experienced by people in a cross-jurisdictional context. Borderwise also provides cross-border advice direct to the
public.
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