Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2018
79. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the key outcomes from the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference; and the prospects for the restoration of a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland. [48202/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI ask the Tánaiste the key outcomes from the recent British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the prospects for the restoration of a power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland as a consequence.
The most recent meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin on 2 November provided an opportunity for the two Governments to continue our discussions on legacy issues, security co-operation, east-west matters, on which I will go into a bit more detail, and political stability in Northern Ireland. It was co-chaired by myself and David Lidington, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, was there as well as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley.
One of the key items discussed at this meeting was a joint paper prepared by Irish and British officials which outlined a number of possible models to maintain and strengthen the high level of bilateral co-operation between Ireland and the UK after it leaves the European Union. The conference agreed that new structures for systemic bilateral co-operation would demonstrate the strength and depth of the relationship, provide opportunities for Ministers and officials to continue to engage with each other, and provide an overall architecture for co-operation that is both meaningful and sustainable in the future.
It was agreed that new structures should include summits involving Heads of Government and senior Ministers in addition to ongoing sectoral work at ministerial level. Officials have been tasked with preparing a fully worked-through proposal for future east-west co-operation for consideration at the next intergovernmental conference which we agreed for the spring of next year.
The conference also provided an opportunity to discuss the ongoing political impasse in Northern Ireland, and the two Governments reiterated our shared commitment to securing the full operation of all the Good Friday Agreement institutions at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, to date, it has not proved possible to reach an agreement on the formation of an Executive, despite intensive efforts by both Governments. I am engaging with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on how the two Governments can most effectively secure the operation of the institutions, and we are also continuing contacts with the political parties to seek a way forward. All parties have reaffirmed their commitment to operating the devolved institutions and have provided views on their key concerns and issues.
I thank the Tánaiste. The intergovernmental conference will probably have to be upgraded post Brexit as we will not have the same formal or informal meetings with our UK colleagues. Was there any discussion about this? Obviously that is something we will have to look into. What practical steps are going to be taken in relation to the 2014 Stormont House Agreement on legacy issues? This needs to be dealt with. Were there any discussions about security issues and, if so, how in depth were they?
What concrete discussions were there about east-west matters? For instance, and this is important, was there any discussion about the common travel area and how that will work and the need to put the rights of citizens into law so that Irish and British citizens, for instance, can continue to reside, use public services and, indeed, vote in each other’s countries? The Tánaiste might outline some progress on those issues.
We looked at what the appropriate structure will be for east-west engagement because, as the Deputy rightly points out, at the moment we bump into British ministers all the time in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. That will not happen in the future so we are planning to set up the kind of structure that France and Germany, and Portugal and Spain, have, whereby, at least once a year, there will be a Government-to-Government summit every second year in Britain and Ireland. It would obviously involve the Prime Minister and Taoiseach and also the relevant Ministers in the key portfolios. That would require that senior civil servants prepare for that a long way out to look at what Britain and Ireland should be doing together strategically in the interests of both countries, and there are many examples of areas where we could be doing more.
The Government is absolutely committed to the Stormont House Agreement. We have just been through a consultation process in Northern Ireland on that and the British Government is committed to bringing forward new legislation to follow through on that consultation, which was a difficult enough consultation, as one would expect, because legacy is particularly sensitive in Northern Ireland for all families concerned.
The security co-operation was primarily around PSNI and Garda co-operation. There have been a lot of joint initiatives that have been very successful in recent weeks and months in respect of cross-Border crime and so on. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, dealt with that comprehensively.
Both Governments are committed to introducing new legislation, if necessary, to reinforce the functioning of a common travel area post Brexit. That will take effect, in terms of new proposals, in the coming weeks and months.
I thank the Tánaiste for those replies. It has been said that there is going to be ambition as to how bilateral co-operation is maintained and strengthened post Brexit. The Tánaiste might outline how that will work. Are we considering a model like the Nordic Council of Ministers? How would the joint funding of projects go ahead etc.? How would EU rules be involved in that, or has any discussion taken place about that, from an Irish perspective?
The Tánaiste said the UK and Irish Governments reaffirmed their shared commitment to securing the operations of the devolved power-sharing Executive in the North.
It has been 680 days. Was there any discussion about any way in which we can, on some level, limp forward with this? Finally, it was agreed that the conference would meet again in the spring of 2019. Is there a lack of urgency in this? Should it not be meeting more regularly? From memory, the minimum under the Good Friday Agreement is two meetings a year. That is all that is being adhered to at the moment. Should there be more, particularly as we move into a post-Brexit situation, or is this covered by the new format which the Minister outlined and which will be set up in the future?
On the last question, until we had a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, BIIGC, in the summer there had not been one for years. I am not quite sure how many, but it had been quite a few years. We had one in the summer and one in the autumn and we are going to have one in the spring. That suggests there will be up to four a year. We are insisting on the structures of the Good Friday Agreement now being actually used. We need to use them appropriately rather than over-reaching in a way which some people would feel threatened by.
In terms of British-Irish interaction and structures to reinforce that interaction in the context of an intergovernmental summit, the BIIGC and other Good Friday Agreement structures are often associated with Northern Ireland and the joint responsibility Britain and Ireland have as co-guarantors of the agreement in the context of the peace process. There is, perhaps, a need to separate from that in the context of a primarily east-west summit which deals with British and Irish issues. Of course we need to co-operate closely and regularly on Northern Irish issues, but there are many other things we should be doing together. Whether linked to trade, climate, or the marine, there are so many different areas in which co-operation between Britain and Ireland makes sense given our geographic proximity to each other and how well we know each other.
