Northern Ireland

SDLP calls for restoration of North-South Ministerial Council

Body established under Good Friday Agreement hasn’t sat for nearly three years

Then Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill. Taoiseach Micheál Martin and First Minister Arlene Foster speak after a North South Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin Castle in 2020
The then Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill with then Taoiseach Micheál Martin and First Minister Arlene Foster at the North South Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin Castle in 2020
By Staff Reporter

The SDLP has called for the restoration of North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC), which hasn’t been convened for nearly three years.

Established under the Good Friday Agreement, the council brings together ministers from the Republic and Stormont, and is responsible for twelve policy areas, including the remit of the six cross-border bodies.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. PICTURE: OLIVER MCVEIGH

The DUP began boycotting the NSMC in September 2021 in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol. Weeks later the High Court ruled that the boycott was an unlawful breach of the pledge of office, however, the council has not sat since July 2021.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it was crucial that ministers work together on areas of “substantial mutual interest”.

“The erosion of north-south cooperation is one of the significant failures of devolution to date, we cannot let that continue,” he said.

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“It is particularly concerning that the NSMC with its statutory remit has yet to be re-established while a new ‘East-West Council’, designed and established as part of discussions between the DUP and the British government which excluded nationalists and others, has already been convened and given credibility as a result of the first minister’s attendance.”

The Foyle MP said there could be no “hierarchy of cooperation”.