Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the support his Department provides for the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council. [24359/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Established under the Good Friday Agreement, the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) has played a key role in developing consultation, cooperation, and action on the island of Ireland on matters of mutual interest and within the competence of the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. My Department works closely with the Department of the Taoiseach in regard to NSMC matters and the Taoiseach co-chairs the NSMC Plenary meetings with the Northern Ireland First Minister and deputy First Minister.

The NSMC is supported by a standing Joint Secretariat in Armagh, staffed by members of the Irish and Northern Ireland Civil Services, with staff costs met separately. There are nine officers from my Department currently working there. In addition to servicing the Council which meets in Plenary, Institutional and Sectoral formats, my officials in the Joint Secretariat also perform other important functions focussed on advocacy for North-South co-operation. They are involved in developing networks of contacts, actively pursuing our priorities for advancing cooperation, as well as analysing and reporting on the progress of such cooperation, including on the work of the North-South Implementation Bodies. My officials in Armagh also play a co-ordinating role across Government in encouraging and advancing cross-border co-operation in all Departments.

As the formal mechanism for bilateral discussions between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, the NSMC has a crucial role to play in the Brexit discussions and the negotiations ahead. The most recent NSMC Plenary meetings in July and November 2016 saw the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive agree on a number of important common principles for dealing with Brexit on an all-island basis, scoping out the sectoral implications of Brexit for Ireland, North and South, and agreeing to work together to optimise North-South planning in the phases preceding and following Brexit. For this reason especially, I hope that a new Executive can be formed soon and that the NSMC discussions can resume quickly thereafter so that the Executive can represent Northern Ireland’s interests, including in relation to the upcoming EU-UK negotiations.

In regard to British-Irish Council (BIC), the Government provides support in a number of ways, with lead responsibilities for the BIC held by the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In terms of practical support, my Department seconds an experienced diplomat to the permanent secretariat of the BIC, based in Edinburgh. This officer jointly heads the secretariat along with an official nominated by the UK government in London. As well as funding the salary and related costs for this official, my Department also makes a financial contribution towards the secretariat’s running costs.

At the Department’s headquarters at Iveagh House in Dublin, responsibility for the British Irish Council is assigned to the Ireland, UK and Americas (IUKA) Division. This is supported further through engagement as appropriate by our diplomatic missions and offices in London, Edinburgh and Belfast, given that the BIC’s membership consists of Ireland, the UK, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

My Department works closely with the Department of the Taoiseach, which provides Ireland’s representatives to the BIC’s central co-ordination group and leads on preparations for BIC Summit meetings, at which Ireland is represented by the Taoiseach. At these summit meetings, the Taoiseach is always accompanied by a minister or ministers responsible for the policy areas being discussed, along with officials from his Department and my own. Throughout the year, ministers and officials also participate in meetings related to the BIC’s twelve policy work streams, which involve direct engagement by a number of different Government Departments.

Established in the context of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the British Irish Council provides Ireland and all member administrations with valuable opportunities to engage with each other and make progress on the various policy work streams. The summit meetings since the UK referendum of June 2016 have also included specific and valuable conversations on the UK’s exit from the EU, thereby providing a clear capacity for discussion of key strategic issues.