Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The North South cooperation we enjoy today brings tangible benefits to the daily lives of people in the border region and contributes to economic opportunity and development. It is also a very practical outworking of the peace process which allows for the normalisation of relationships between people across the island, to mutual benefit.

The Government is therefore firmly focused on protecting the full range of areas in which North South cooperation exists today. This is fully reflected in the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union which was endorsed by the European Council on 25 November 2018.

In the context of the negotiations between the EU and the UK which led to this agreement and at the request of the EU and UK Coordinators for the High Level Dialogue on Ireland/Northern Ireland, officials carried out detailed work over October and November 2017 to map out areas of cooperation that operate on a North South basis on the island of Ireland and which rely on EU law and policies.

This included looking at the six North South implementation bodies, the areas of cooperation under the North South Ministerial Council, which cover agriculture, environment, health, education, transport and tourism, as well as other areas where there is practical cooperation between North and South, including justice and security, energy, broadcasting and communications, inland fisheries, sport and culture.

The exercise overall highlighted how the maintenance and future development of meaningful North South cooperation relies on the EU legal and policy frameworks to give direction to this cooperation and to facilitate its operation. The EU frameworks are both overarching and the foundation to North South cooperation in many instances. Much of the cooperation is interconnected, mutually supporting and complementary.

The Joint Report agreed by the EU and UK negotiators on 8 December 2017 acknowledged that cooperation between Ireland and Northern Ireland is a central part of the Good Friday Agreement, and that the UK departure from the Union gives rise to substantial challenges to the maintenance and development of North-South cooperation. The UK has accordingly committed to protecting and supporting continued North-South cooperation across the full range of contexts and frameworks of cooperation, including the continued operation of the North-South implementation bodies. This is reflected in Article 13 of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement.

As the mapping exercise was conducted by the EU and UK in the course of their dialogue on Ireland and Northern Ireland, joint publication of a final report is ultimately a matter for the EU and UK. However, once the Withdrawal Agreement has been endorsed by all parties, the Government would see no reason why the report should not be published in due course.