Speech by Tánaiste at the 25th anniversary of the North South Ministerial Council, Armagh

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Lord Mayor, Minister Reilly, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Is cúis áthais dom bheith anseo libh anocht, agus muid ag ceiliúradh fiche bliain is cúig den Chomhairle Aireachta Thuaidh Theas.

I am delighted to be here in Armagh to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the North South Ministerial Council.

It was in this very room, 25 years ago tomorrow to the exact date, that the inaugural plenary meeting of the North South Ministerial Council took place.

I was Minister for Education and Science at the time, and I participated in that very first meeting of the Council.

I remember it well. The historical nature of the event was not lost on any of us in attendance. It was the first time that elected Ministers from both jurisdictions on this island gathered together in one room to work for the common good of all the people of this island.

Armagh was an excellent location to host the NSMC, with its amazing history and its status as ecclesiastical capital of the island’s main faith traditions.

Of course, it did no harm that the then Deputy First Minister and cherished friend of mine, the late Seamus Mallon also happened to be the MLA for Newry & Armagh!

At that first plenary meeting, Seamus quoted the French writer Victor Hugo, who said that there was one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that was an idea whose time had come.

For Seamus, the idea whose time had come was partnership.

Partnership between the two traditions in Northern Ireland, and partnership between North and South on the island.

This concept of partnership has underpinned the workings of the NSMC from its inception.

The journey has not always been straightforward. All of us here remember periods when the NSMC, along with the other institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, was down. Too many periods of time, where the dominant sense was one of frustration, rather than one of progress.

Nevertheless, a vast amount of excellent concrete work has taken place in the last quarter century.

Cooperation between the administrations North and South - whether through the formal structures of the NSMC, or through other mechanisms - has since become a fundamental aspect of how this island works; of how public policy is formulated and implemented.

All of you here this evening have played, or continue to play, an important role in this.

Whether as civil servants, local authority officials, members of the business community, civic society, the churches, or representatives of cross-border organisations, you have all contributed to the tangible outworkings of this partnership.

I want to say a special word of thanks to the representatives of the North-South Bodies who are all represented here this evening by their CEOs and by Board and staff members. If the Council was – and is - unique, then so too are the Bodies established under Strand Two.

They operate on a cross-jurisdictional, North-South basis - jointly managed and funded by the relevant government departments North and South – under the oversight of the NSMC.

Vitally, they have operated continuously over the past 25 years, through complex and difficult periods, delivering day after day on their remits.

The outcomes that they have helped to deliver have transformed our island.

Look at the increase in cross-border trade; more than trebled in value since 1998, now standing at over eleven and a half billion euro. That growth has been supported and facilitated by InterTradeIreland, (co-incidentally located in the other half of Seamus’ constituency), whose programmes support so many SMEs and entrepreneurs on this island;

Look at the progress on peacebuilding and investment in communities, supported by the Special EU Programmes Body over 25 years of the PEACE and INTERREG programmes; and now with the €1.1 billion PEACEPlus programme, the largest programme to date;

Look at the advances in the health and wellbeing of our populations, assisted by the research undertaken by SafeFood and the all-island networks and programmes they have developed which promote food safety and healthy eating;

Think of the 1,000km of waterways and the amenities maintained and developed by Waterways Ireland; outstanding resources for local communities and visitors alike across this island, and soon to be joined by a restored Ulster Canal;

Think of the wonderful achievements of Foras na Gaeilge and the Ulster Scots Agency, in preserving and promoting the linguistic and cultural traditions across this island;

the valuable conservation, development and outreach work done by the Loughs Agency, as well as its world class scientific research;

the huge success of Tourism Ireland, bringing millions of tourists to visit and contributing to livelihoods across every corner of this beautiful island.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As we look across the achievements of the NSMC over the past 25 years, it is the practical, positive impacts on the lives and livelihoods of everyone on this island that we can be most proud of.

This was our focus from the earliest days of the Council.

And this remains our focus today.

It is also a goal that is at the heart of the Shared Island Initiative that I established when I became Taoiseach in 2020.

Through this initiative, we have not only commenced the largest programme of cross-border investment and cooperation ever undertaken by any Irish Government - the iconic Narrow Water Bridge, the investment in the Ulster University campus at Magee and the Ulster Canal restoration amongst them.

But we are also engaging with communities new and old on what sharing this island looks like in practice, through our Shared Island dialogue series.

And we’re developing a strong evidence base on tackling the shared challenges that we face, through the Shared Island Research Programme.

In all of this work, we want to engage as closely and as strategically as possible with the Northern Ireland Executive, and with the UK Government, to maximise our impact.

It is important also to recall the inter-connectedness of the three Strands of the Agreement. Last week, I hosted the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin, welcoming the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to Farmleigh.

On Friday, I joined the Taoiseach, the UK Prime Minister, the First Minister and deputy First Minister and leaders of the devolved administrations on these islands at the 25th anniversary British Irish Council Summit.

These of course are vital institutions of the East- West dimension of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to conclude by thanking the team at the NSMC Joint Secretariat for putting together this evening’s anniversary event.

It comes at the end of a busy year; since the restoration of the institutions in February, the Secretariat has organised two plenary meetings, an Institutional Format meeting and 13 Ministerial Sectoral meetings.

An equally busy schedule beckons in 2025.

I want also to acknowledge the work of the many former Joint Secretaries of the NSMC who are here this evening and to pay a particular tribute to those Joint Secretaries who have since passed away; the late Shane O’Neill, whose wife Hildegarde and son Shane are here this evening; and the late Peter Smyth, who passed away earlier this year.

You should all be very proud of what you have delivered for, and to, the peoples of this island over 25 years of commitment, imagination and sheer hard work.

Let us renew our mission this evening; renew our commitment to further North South consultation and co-operation and action.

Our commitment to making a tangible difference to the lives of communities North and South. And to addressing the shared challenges and opportunities that we face in this, our Shared Home Place.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh. Thank you.