BRITAIN’S DEPUTY prime minister Nick Clegg and Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond are to attend this morning’s summit meeting of the British-Irish Council at Dublin Castle along with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Originally scheduled for November 28th last, the meeting was postponed as a mark of respect following the death of the Taoiseach’s mother.
Mr Clegg, who is on his first official visit to Ireland as deputy prime minister, will pay a courtesy call on President Michael D Higgins and hold bilateral discussions at Iveagh House with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore.
The British-Irish Council was established under the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday 1998 to promote mutually beneficial relationships between the governments and administrations of Ireland, Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
The main topic of discussion at this morning’s meeting will be the misuse of drugs and the Taoiseach will be accompanied by Minister for Health Dr James Reilly and Minister of State for Primary Care Róisín Shortall.
Others scheduled to attend include the North’s First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson.
A standing secretariat is provided by officials from the member administrations and staffed full-time from a permanent base in Edinburgh.
Council members co-operate in areas of mutual interest, including spatial planning, demography, digital inclusion, early years policy, energy, environment, housing, indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages, misuse of drugs, social inclusion and transport.
To date the council has met 13 times at summit level, starting in London in December 1999. Summit meetings generally focus on a particular theme within one of the priority areas of work.
