Irish and British politicians will have an opportunity to debate and assess the St Andrews Agreement, 10 days after it was signed, when they meet for a formal session of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body in Belfast today.
The 68-member British-Irish body will meet for its 33rd plenary session at Belfast's Waterfront Hall - the first time the body has met in formal session in Northern Ireland.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, will deliver the keynote address on behalf of the British government and will then participate in a questions-and-answers session with the members.
Prior to this, the body will debate a motion welcoming the St Andrews Agreement and commending the two governments and the political parties for their efforts to restore the political institutions and restore devolution for the people of Northern Ireland.
The motion also welcomes the position, as set out in the agreement, that support for policing and the rule of law should be extended to every part of the community; and that such support included endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the criminal justice system, encouraging the community to co-operate with the police in tackling crime, and actively supporting all the policing and criminal justice institutions, including the Policing Board.
It also encourages all the parties to work towards accepting the governments' proposals by November 10th to allow the Assembly to nominate the first and deputy first ministers on November 24th to allow for restoration on March 26th, 2007.
Members of all the Northern parties have been invited to attend the deliberations of the body at its plenary session this morning.
Other matters to be debated include the economic prospects for Northern Ireland, the role of civil society, and a body sub-committee report seeking a multimillion-pound investment aimed at helping children and young people in the most deprived areas of Belfast.
The body's British co-chairman is Labour MP Paul Murphy, Mr Hain's predecessor as Northern Ireland secretary. The Irish co-chairman is Dublin North-West Fianna Fáil TD, Pat Carey.
The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body was formally established in 1990 as a link between Westminster and Dublin, with 25 British and 25 Irish members drawn from the upper and lower houses of both parliaments.
In recent years the membership of the body has been extended to include representatives from the Welsh assembly, the Scottish parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
