Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1608. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he has met and or engaged with Naomi Long and or the Chief Constable of the police service of Northern Ireland since his appointment; if so, the nature and or subject matter of those engagements. [20178/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to inform the Deputy that there continues to be excellent ongoing cross-border engagement and co-operation with counterparts in Northern Ireland on relevant justice matters. This includes close co-operation between my officials and officials in the Northern Ireland Department of Justice on a range of issues, as well as between An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other agencies with their counterparts.

A reflection of this ongoing co-operation was the all-island organised crime conference that took place in Belfast last month. Minister for Justice Naomi Long, MLA and I were both in attendance, along with the Garda Commissioner and the Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI. Another significant development was the launch of the new Cross Border Policing Strategy last December.

I have had regular contact with the Minister Long since my appointment in January. I had an initial virtual meeting with Minister Long on 4 February and more recently we met for a bilateral meeting in Belfast on 10 March.

Minister Long and I jointly chair meetings of the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters. The IGA covers a number of criminal justice strands of cooperation such as protection of victims, forensic science and youth justice. There are common areas of interest which benefit from this work including combatting transnational crime; managing offenders; and supporting victims; and the IGA provides a valuable structure for ongoing North South engagement in tackling these issues together. The next ministerial meeting under the IGA is scheduled for 28 May. It will be my first such meeting and I look forward to engaging with Minister Long in this format.