Republican News · Thursday 5 December 2002

Working the All-Ireland Bodies

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Over the coming weeks, An Phoblacht's JOANNE CORCORAN will be examining the all-Ireland strand of the Good Friday Agreement, in particular the work of the all-Ireland implementation bodies, a vital part of Sinn Féin's work to advance our all-Ireland agenda. We will be focusing on the four individual bodies that have Sinn Féin members on their boards, their successes and failures, and where they can go from here. This series is intended to provide a focus for discussion and debate among republicans. The all-Ireland agenda needs to be placed at the core of our daily struggle and republicans need to be working from local to national level to advance the process of making the border irrelevant.

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Paving the Path to Peace

One of the key elements of the Good Friday Agreement was the establishment of the North South Ministerial Council. The Council's brief was to develop consultation, cooperation and action within the island of Ireland - including through implementation on an all-island and cross-border basis - on matters of mutual interest.

The Agreement established areas of cooperation between the Six-County Executive and the Dublin government and alongside this, six implementation Bodies.

Two of these are executive agencies with chief executives, Waterways Ireland and the Special European Union Programmes Body - which has a number of sub-boards, including Sinn Féin members. The other four have boards, with five Sinn Féin members distributed among them.

Sinn Féin pushed for All-Ireland bodies to be established, their significance lying in their potential for hastening the reunification of Ireland through a steady erosion of differences on either side of the border. If both sides shared the same economic structures, education systems, health systems and so on, the border would soon become irrelevant.

The Irish language body, Foras na Gaeilge, and Intertrade Ireland could be considered the most important of the implementation bodies from a Sinn Féin point of view, but the other two - Foyle Carlingford Irish Lights Commission and the Food Safety Promotion Board, are just as important in bringing down the imposed border.

Sabotage

The latest suspension of the institutions by the British government created a crisis for the all-Ireland bodies. The Good Friday Agreement states that the North/South Ministerial Council and the Assembly are mutually interdependent, and that one cannot successfully function without the other.

The All-Ireland bodies come under the aegis of the North South Ministerial Council. To ensure that they can continue to function in the current unsatisfactory situation, both governments have now introduced legislation to allow the two governments to operate the bodies in place of the NSMC.

Areas of cooperation

The NSMC, when setting up the bodies, decided to develop those areas which affect people living on both sides of the border and which could easily be managed jointly by people in the Six Counties and 26 Counties.

Six areas of cooperation were decided upon: health, transport, education, environment, agriculture and tourism.

One of the most straightforward areas to target was transport. Strategic planning and development of cross-border cooperation in respect of road and rail planning and road and rail safety, taking into account issues arising in the port and airport sectors, were the first steps identified.

Education was looked at next. Specific interests here included developing joint plans for children with special needs like autism and dyslexia, educational underachievement, teacher qualifications, and school, youth and teacher exchanges on a cross-border basis.

It was recognised that health was going to be one of the most difficult and important areas. The lack of essential facilities and planning on both sides of the border meant enormous resources and effort would be needed to create an effective health system for the island. Accident and emergency planning, emergency services, cooperation on high technology equipment, cancer research and health promotion were the most significant areas to be dealt with by the respective ministers.

With regard to the environment, the respective ministers would look at research into environmental protection, water quality management and waste management in a cross-border context.

Tourism Ireland Limited was set up to operate under the overall policy direction of the North/South Ministerial Council, advertising Ireland as a whole as an appealing destination.

Implementation Bodies

Irish Lights

The Foyle Carlingford Irish Lights Commission exercises its functions through two agencies. Louth TD Arthur Morgan is the Sinn Féin representative on this board. The functions of the Foyle and Carlingford Areas are exercised through the Loughs Agency, which has replaced the Foyle Fisheries Commission and which is now responsible for the management and development of the Foyle estuary and Carlingford Lough.

The FCILC is responsible for the sustainable development of the Marine (ie. fisheries, aquaculture and water quality) and Marine Tourism resources of Lough Foyle and Carlingford Lough.

It was intended that the FCILC would be the General Lighthouse Authority for all of Ireland and when established it would replace the Commissioners of Irish Lights. However, difficulties arose in pursuing this transfer of functions, and the matter is under review.

The enabling legislation required to bring forward the regulation to develop the two Loughs has not yet been established. The delay in initiating the legislative requirement resides with the Attorney General's Office in Dublin.

To date, the FCILC has met on eight occasions, the last of which was held in Dublin in April 2002. The FCILC has a Board of 12 members appointed by the NSMC.

Food safety

ne Speed represents Sinn Féin on the Food Safety Promotion Board. The body has a Chief Executive, Martin Higgins, and an Advisory Board consisting of 18 members, appointed by the NSMC. An Advisory Committee includes scientific experts and representatives of broader food safety interests.

This body is principally charged with promoting food safety - through public campaigns, conferences, training and advising professionals and the general public. It plans to create an environment where consumers can have confidence in the food they eat, drawing on the best scientific support available and to provide advice and guidance to the food industry and to consumers.

Irish language

Foras na Gaeilge has the objective of promoting the Irish language on an all-island basis. Gearóid Ó hEara & Gearóid MacSiacais are the Sinn Féin representatives on the board, which has 16 members. Ó hEara replaced the original Sinn Féin representative, Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin. As well as taking over the work of Bord na Gaeilge, a wide range of functions were given to the Agency to add to its effectiveness in the promotion of Irish, for example, in the area of education, dictionaries and terminology. It also took over the functions of An Gúm in relation to publications. The staff of Bord na Gaeilge, An Gúm (Publishers) and An Coiste Téarmaíochta (Terminology Development) and their activities have all been transferred to the new body.

Of late, Gearóid Ó hEára has hit out at the decision by the Dublin government to cut its funding of the North/South Irish Language body by 11%.

"This cut means a loss of almost £2 million to the promotion of Irish and the effects of it could well jeopardise the significant progress achieved by Foras so far," he said, promising that Sinn Féin will be raising the matter with the two governments.

Developing trade

One of the most important bodies, InterTradeIreland has a focus on promoting all-Ireland trade and business cooperation by building enterprise capability and competitiveness. Robbie Smyth, Sinn Féin Policy and Research Officer in Leinster House, is a board member. InterTradeIreland is headquartered in Newry. The Chief Executive of InterTradeIreland is Liam Nellis.

InterTradeIreland aims to add value to the work being carried out by existing development agencies. It also aims to enhance enterprise competitiveness in a Six County/26 County context in areas such as skills availability, telecoms, information technology and electronic commerce by encouraging information share, joint marketing initiatives, joint research and development and other ventures as well as maximising the potential of e-business across Ireland.

Except for suspension periods, ITI has met 11 months a year and has significantly expanded its activities since inception. It currently has over 27 projects in operation, has built a headquarters in Newry and is beginning to establish itself as a dynamic economic agency.

The importance of the success of these all-Ireland bodies cannot be overemphasised in terms of creating an all-Ireland identity.