Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the present legal status of the Good Friday Agreement and its relationship to the St. Andrews Agreement. [13979/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The St Andrews Agreement underpins the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Good Friday Agreement is the collective name given to the British Irish Agreement and Multi-Party Agreement of 10 April 1998. The British Irish Agreement is an international agreement, by which the two Governments undertook to support and, where appropriate, to implement the annexed Multi-Party Agreement. It entered into force on 2 December 1999.

The agreement reached at St Andrews followed discussions between the Governments and the parties on the means to achieve restoration of a power sharing Executive in Northern Ireland and the full and effective operation of the political institutions envisaged by the Multi-Party Agreement.

As with the Multi-Party Agreement, the agreement reached at St Andrews was subsequently annexed to an international agreement between the Governments. The Governments, by means of that international agreement, undertook to support and, where appropriate, to implement the institutional measures agreed at St Andrews. That international agreement entered into force on 9 May 2007, following restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive.