Vol. 533 No. 2
14 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs when it is planned to establish the North-South independent consultative forum which the Government was committed to consider under the Good Friday Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8418/01]
The Good Friday Agreement provided that consideration be given to the establishment of an independent consultative forum appointed by the two administrations, North and South. In addition, in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness the Government gave a commitment to work towards the early establishment and effective functioning of the forum. The Deputy will appreciate that the process of consideration of the establishment of a North-South forum must naturally take place in partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive.
At the last plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, NSMC, in Dublin on 26 September, the Council agreed that a joint North-South working group, comprising officials of both administrations, be tasked with studying the establishment of the forum and reporting to the next plenary.
As the House will be aware, due to difficulties in the wider political context, it was regrettably not possible to proceed with the planned NSMC plenary on 2 March. However, as result of the discussions at Hillsborough on 8 March, the two Governments are hopeful that sufficient progress can be made in the period ahead to, among other things, facilitate an early convening of the NSMC in plenary format. Meanwhile, the joint working group continues to make good progress with its study and plans to report to the plenary meeting of the NSMC when convened.
Question No. 15 answered with Question No. 6.
