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North-South Ministerial Council

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Questions (659)

Patrick Costello

Question:

659. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of North-South Ministerial Council meetings held in the past ten years and to date in 2020. [32940/20]

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Written answers

A total of 177 meetings of the North South Ministerial Council, attended by Ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government, have taken place since the start of 2010. These have comprised 15 plenary meetings, 6 meetings in institutional format and 156 sectoral meetings covering the agreed twelve areas of North South cooperation. These meetings bring our Government and the Executive together to oversee and further develop North South cooperation, as provided for under the Good Friday Agreement.

The formation of a Northern Ireland Executive in January 2020 ended a three-year period without power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland. during which the North South Ministerial Council could not meet.

So far this year, an Institutional meeting in Armagh on 11 March, a Plenary meeting in Dublin Castle on 31 July, and six sectoral meetings attended by Ministers North and South have taken place. A full round of meetings across the NSMC’s twelve policy sectors is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, with a further Plenary in December, and I look forward to this vital North-South engagement continuing.

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