Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position regarding funding for Irish bodies under the Good Friday Agreement. [21949/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, six North/South Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland were established. These Bodies play a significant role in taking forward North/South co-operation on the island.

The North/South Bodies are jointly funded by the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. Funding from each jurisdiction is provided on an agreed proportionate basis having regard to the benefits accruing to each jurisdiction and the specific factors related to each Body. The funding of the individual Bodies is a matter for the responsible Departments, North and South, in each case. My Department does not fund any of the North/South Bodies.

Total funding for the Bodies from both jurisdictions in 2008 amounted to some €187m. Total Government funding for the Bodies in 2008 was €129m.

The budgets of the North/South Bodies for 2009 are under consideration by the sponsor Departments of the Bodies and the Department of Finance together with their Northern counterparts with a view to agreement within the North South Ministerial Council. In that connection, the Department of Finance is working with the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel on an agreed approach on identifying savings in the budgets of the North/South Bodies in the coming year.

The North/South Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland remain an important component of the overall institutional architecture on this island arising from the Good Friday Agreement. They are unique, cross-jurisdictional entities which operate on an all-island basis under the overall direction of the North South Ministerial Council. Since the re-establishment of the power-sharing institutions in 2007, the relevant Ministers have had a range of useful and productive meetings in relation to the Bodies with their Northern counterparts within the framework of the North South Ministerial Council. The full and continuing effectiveness of the North/South Bodies remains a high priority for the Government.