North-South cooperation on the island of Ireland

What is North-South cooperation?

The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which brought a formal end to the troubles in Northern Ireland, established a three-stand approach to governance in Northern Ireland.

Strand one concerns the devolved institutions in Belfast.

North-South relations formed strand two.

Strand three concerned ‘East-West relations’ involving the UK and other devolved governments. North-South cooperation refers to joint working and coordination between the Irish government and the Northern Ireland executive.

Why is North-South cooperation important?

A shared history and geography means Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland share a large number of interests. They have closely integrated economies: in 2018 37% of Northern Ireland’s total exports^[2] were to the Republic of Ireland, with estimates from the NI Department of Economy^[1] suggesting up to 66% of trade in goods across the border relates to supply chain activity. They also share an integrated transport system, a single all-island electricity market and an estimated 23,000-30,000 cross-border workers^[3].

The Irish government and Northern Ireland executive also cooperate in a wide number of policy areas both formally, at a ministerial level, and informally through well-developed relationships between officials and departments in their respective civil services. These include health, education, agriculture, environment, energy, tourism and security.

There has also been important joint-working across the response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Who oversees North-South cooperation?

The Good Friday Agreement provides for the establishment of a North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) comprised of ministers from the government of Ireland and the Northern Ireland executive “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 within the competence of the Administrations, North and South”.

The NSMC meets in three different formats:

The Council is supported by a joint secretariat staffed by members of the Northern Ireland civil service and the Irish civil service.

On average the NSMC Council meets in plenary twice a year. However, it has been unable to meet during periods where there has been no functioning Northern Ireland executive. Since the Northern Ireland executive was restored in January 2020 after a three-year hiatus, one institutional meeting of the NSMC has been held.  

In what areas does North-South cooperation take place?

As required by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the North-South Ministerial Council agreed six formal areas of cooperation, for which common policies and approaches are agreed but implemented separately in each jurisdiction:

• Agriculture – agricultural subsides, animal and plant health and rural development.

• Education – special needs education, educational under achievement, teacher qualifications and school, youth and teaching exchanges.

• Environment – research into environmental protection and cross-border water quality and waste management.

• Health – accident and emergency planning, planning for major emergencies, co-operation on high technology equipment, cancer research and health promotion.

• Tourism – the promotion of tourism on the island of Ireland, to be implemented by Tourism Ireland.

• Transport – cooperation on strategic transport planning and road and rail safety.

The council also agreed a further six areas of North-South cooperation, where strategies are implemented directly by six ‘implementation bodies’:

• Waterways Ireland – which is responsible for the management and development of inland waterways for recreational purposes.
• Food Safety Promotion Board – conducts research into food safety standards and coordinates scientific cooperation and specialised testing.
• InterTradeIreland – promotes trade and businesses on an all-Island basis.
• Special European Union Programmes Body – manages and oversees EU funding programmes including PEACE III funding (which will continue now the UK has left the EU).
• The Language Body – consisting of agencies Foras na Gaelige and Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch to promote the Irish Language and Ulster-Scots respectively.
• Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission – consisting of the Lough Agency – which promotes commercial and recreational fishing in Loughs, and the Lights agency – which was intended to take on the functions of the Lighthouse Authority, but due to complications has not done so.

In addition, there is informal North-South Cooperation in many other areas. A mapping exercise^[4] in 2017 identified 156 areas of cooperation, including on justice and security, telecommunications and broadcasting, sports, art and culture, social security, housing, public services, and statistics.

How does Brexit affect North-South cooperation?

The UK’s exit from the European Union poses a challenge to North-South cooperation; which according to the UK-EU mapping exercise^[5] “relies to a significant extent on a common European Union legal and policy framework”.

The Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol, agreed as part of the Withdrawal Agreement, is designed to allow goods to move freely across the border from North to South, and prevent the need for border infrastructure on the island of Ireland. It does so by requiring Northern Ireland to continue to align with certain EU single market and customs rules. Article 11 of the protocol requires these arrangements to be implemented to maintain the conditions necessary to maintain North-South cooperation.

There are number of other all-Ireland issues such as trade in services, and mutual recognition of qualifications that the UK hopes to resolve by reaching agreement on its future relationship with the EU. However, there are many other areas, such a justice and security cooperation, where further bilateral agreements between the UK and the Republic of Ireland or other adaptations may be necessary to maintain North-South cooperation.

How are Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland working together on coronavirus?

The administrations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have worked closely together on the Covid-19 crisis. Health is an area of North-South cooperation, and the island of Ireland is a Single Epidemiological Unit (SEU) for disease control relating to animal health. Similar practical considerations apply to the spread of human diseases such as Covid-19.

The chief medical officers of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland hold a weekly teleconference to update each other on the situation in their respective areas and “ensure mutual ongoing understanding”.

On 14 March senior ministers from the Northern Ireland executive – the first minister, deputy first minister and health minister met with the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), the Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and minister for Health from the Irish government, alongside their respective chief medical officers – met to discuss North South cooperation on Covid-19.

As agreed at the meeting, the health departments in Northern Ireland  and the Republic of Ireland signed a Memorandum of Understanding^[6]. This committed to “to promote cooperation and collaboration in response to the Covid-19 pandemic”. In particular they committed to working together on:

• modelling the impact of Covid-19

• sharing information on measures such as testing, contact tracing and social distances

• adopting consistent common messages where appropriate, such as on handwashing, hygiene and social distancing

• behavioural change, research and ethics

The Northern Ireland executive and Irish government also planned to cooperate on procurement of medical supplies. They placed a joint order for Person Protective Equipment (PPE); however, the suppliers were unable to fulfil the order.

How have the approaches of the UK and Irish governments differed?

The Republic of Ireland made the decision to close schools almost a week before the UK government – causing disagreement in the multi-party executive. Whilst the Sinn Fein deputy first minister favoured an all-Ireland approach, the DUP first minister favoured a UK-wide strategy.

However, the imposition of stringent lockdowns in both the Republic of Ireland and the UK appeared to alleviate tensions within in the executive. In May, the Northern Ireland executive agreed a five-step roadmap for easing social distancing restrictions^[7], not dissimilar to the Irish government's five-phase roadmap.

Governments in each part of the of the UK have each taken their own approach to easing lockdown restrictions. Northern Ireland has reopened its economy at a faster pace that other parts of the UK, being the first to open non-essential retail and hospitality. England followed these steps shortly after, but Scotland and Wales have moved at a slower pace.