Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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114. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when the North South Inter-Parliamentary Association last met. [40676/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The operation of the North South Inter-Parliamentary Association is a matter, in this jurisdiction, for the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The establishment of a North South parliamentary forum was envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement. Following an agreement by working groups of both the Oireachtas and the Northern Ireland Assembly on 4 July 2012, the inaugural plenary session of the North South Inter-Parliamentary Association was held in the Seanad Chamber on 12 October 2012. The most recent plenary session of the North South Inter-Parliamentary Association took place on 2 December 2016 in Belfast.

At present, the North/South Inter-Parliamentary Association is unable to meet and this will remain the case until the Northern Ireland Assembly is fully reconvened.

I am continuing to work with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and each of the political parties to support an agreement as soon as possible, on the formation of a new power-sharing Executive within the mandate of the current Assembly.

The Government is determined, as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, to do everything in our power to ensure that all of its institutions can operate fully and effectively.