Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the first British-Irish intergovernmental conference since 2019 may take place "in the coming weeks or months" as he struck a positive note on differences over the Northern Ireland Protocol being resolved.
Mr Coveney said ongoing discussions between the EU commissioner in charge of post-Brexit negotiations, Marcus Sekcovic, and his British counterpart, Lord David Frost, were progressing well.
In an upbeat assessment of talks Mr Coveney told the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs it was possible to find flexible and pragmatic ways of addressing the issues around the protocol.
He said there were about 26 issues to be resolved. Some 20 could be resolved technically, but that the remaining six were political in nature.
Some of these involved products that originated in Great Britain, and which are subject to checks when entering Northern Ireland. The protocol ensured that Northern Ireland was not used as a vehicle to import those products, which include steel and medicines, into the EU to avoid tariffs.
One of the biggest sources of frustration and delays has been the inspection of animals arriving into Northern Ireland from Britain.
Mr Coveney said finding a solution for these checks would go a long way to resolving the larger questions. “If we find a way forward on [this issue] it will reduce inspections in Northern ports.”
On an intergovernmental conference Mr Coveney said the last one had been held two years ago and said it was useful in that the memorandum of understanding on common travel had emerged from it.
He told members of the committee that the next conference would be held in the “coming weeks or months”.
Northern milk
He said there was a “a country of origin” issue with Northern Irish milk. A very significant portion of Northern milk is processed in the South and is in a mixed milk pool.
He said that in itself caused no difficulty as milk could be distributed anywhere within the EU. However, when the milk was used to make other products such as cheese, yoghurt, or baby powder, it created an issue.
The fact that Northern milk was used meant the end product could not be labelled as having an EU origin.
He said the Government was working with the EU to allow products with Northern milk to be seen as an EU product. However, it would mean amendments to trade agreements, and that would happen gradually.
