A UK and Irish government consultation body will meet later for the first time in more than a decade amid efforts to restore Stormont powersharing.
The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference will be held in London, a year and a half after devolved government imploded in Belfast.
It gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland.
It last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial. When it was last called security was a major part of its remit but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.
Sinn Fein and the SDLP have long been calling for the conference’s re-establishment to inject fresh impetus into the stalled political process in Belfast.
But unionists have been wary of handing too much influence to Dublin and dismissed the gathering as a “talking shop”.
Cabinet Office minister David Lidington and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley are expected to attend.
The Irish government will be represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.
Powersharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme.
The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel