Level
of North-South co-operation `unprecedented'
From IRISH TIMES August 30th, 2000
By GERRY MORIARTY
A level of North-South co-operation "unprecedented since partition" has
been achieved following the restoration of the Assembly and the Executive
at the end of May, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The North-South
dimension of the Belfast Agreement is operating quietly and successfully,
with much work of substance being achieved without controversy or dissension,
officials at the Department have reported in a very positive progress assessment.
The officials added that Ulster Unionist Ministers felt able to fully participate
in the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) based on the "overall architecture of the agreement" which also comprised the Executive, the Assembly and the
British-Irish Council. The NSMC and the North-South bodies were the "unsung success" of the Belfast Agreement, they reported.
Since the Executive was restored at the end of May, an intensive series
of meetings has been held over a three-week period between Ministers from
Dublin and Stormont. A departmental spokesman said yesterday that the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, was very pleased with the "positive, business-like spirit" in which the meetings of the NSMC had taken place.
"While much of the media focus inevitably has been on the high-profile problems of the process - such as Drumcree and the policing Bill - Mr Cowen said that the feeling in Dublin, and shared in Belfast, is that valuable, solid work has been, and is being, done on the North-South front."
Mr Cowen said there is appreciation of the positive approach taken by the
unionist Ministers, who have made clear that they are happy to work proactively
in the NSMC on issues which are of common interest and which bring real
mutual benefit in both parts of the island, he said. Mr Cowen said that
unionist Ministers themselves pointed to the "careful checks and balances
written into the Belfast Agreement which ensure that all decisions are by
agreement and on the basis of mutual consent".
In mid-June and early July Government Ministers, including the Tanaiste,
Ms Harney, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, the Minister for Agriculture,
Mr Walsh, and the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, met Ulster Unionist, SDLP
and Sinn Fein Ministers such as Sir Reg Empey, Mr Sam Foster, Mr Mark Durkan,
Ms Brid Rodgers, Mr Martin McGuinness and Ms Bairbre de Brun.
All eight UUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein Ministers attended one or more of the
meetings. The DUP boycotted these encounters which dealt with most of the
six North-South implementation bodies and the six areas for North-South
co-operation. The officials appeared surprised and gratified that the meetings
on issues such as trade, agriculture, health and food safety, EU programmes
and waterways had been so harmonious.
"The series of meetings was highly successful. Indeed, the holding of nine
ministerial meetings in a period of less than three weeks constitutes an
intensity and spread of activity in North-South relations unprecedented
since partition," they reported. "What was perhaps more remarkable was in
many ways their very unremarkableness. Because of the requirements of the
Good Friday agreement the Northern delegation always comprises an accompanying
Minister of the tradition other than the lead Minister," they added.
"Here we had, therefore, without controversy or fuss, a series of nine meetings
involving Ministers from the Irish Government sitting down in formal session
with delegations comprising UUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein Ministers taking forward
co-operation between North and South on a wide range of matters."
"Each meeting was held in a positive, friendly, businesslike spirit with
a commitment on all sides to get on with the job in hand." The Foreign Affairs
spokesman added: "Some observers have noted that the unfussy, non-controversial
way that North-South business is being done is in itself testimony to the
fact that the process, while complex, does work. Indeed, in many ways it
is its complexity, with all the checks and balances, which paradoxically
allows it to function so effectively." |
