Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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663. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when the next North-South Ministerial Council meeting will be held; the issues to be discussed at this meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14942/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The North South Ministerial Council meets in three formats: Plenary, Institutional and Sectoral. The next Plenary meeting is scheduled to take place in June 2015, and to be chaired by the Taoiseach.

While the agenda for the meeting has yet to be finalised, it is likely that discussions will touch on financial and economic issues affecting both jurisdictions and that Ministers from North and South will together take the opportunity to review the work undertaken in the areas of North/South cooperation, including by the North-South implementation bodies, since the preceding Plenary meeting on 5 December 2014 in Armagh.

Following on from the Stormont House Agreement, I would expect that the meeting will also review the progress made on identifying and developing priorities for new and further sectoral priorities for North/South cooperation which have been identified during Ministerial discussions, with the focus on those areas that promote economic recovery, job creation, the best use of tax-payers’ funds and the most effective delivery of public services. The North West Gateway Initiative, the current position on the North South Consultative Forum and other matters of topical concern, in particular cross-border smuggling and fuel laundering, are other matters which are expected to be discussed at the meeting.

The forthcoming Plenary meeting of the Council also offers an opportunity for substantive discussions with our Northern Ireland colleagues on shared interests such as increasing trade and business activity and EU matters including the new PEACE and INTERREG Cross-Border Programmes.

My colleagues in Government and I will continue to make North South economic cooperation a priority, and to actively pursue our priorities for advancing cooperation with the Northern Ireland Executive, primarily through the structures of the Council.