Announcing his intention to attend today's meeting in Enniskillen, the North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said:
"The refusal to nominate Bairbre de Brun, Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, to the scheduled North-South Ministerial Council meeting this Friday is the cause of significant difficulties for the institutions. As Deputy First Minister I have responsibility, with the First Minister, for the stewardship of the institutions established by the Good Friday Agreement. As such, I must protect the integrity and operation of these institutions.
"Therefore I will discuss the problems facing the health and food safety sectors of the North-South Ministerial Council with the Irish Government's Health Minister, Micheal Martin, and Bairbre de Brun in Enniskillen on Friday.
"I shall stress, to Mr Martin, my determination to see the institutions established by the Good Friday Agreement work normally in all aspects and ask him to co-operate in ensuring the least possible disruption to the important work on health and food-safety issues.
"I sought a meeting of the Executive before Friday so that the problems caused by the refusal to nominate Sinn Fein Ministers to the North-South Ministerial Council could be discussed. The rules agreed by the Executive as a whole require any meeting to be convened by both the First Minister and myself.
"The First Minister's refusal this morning (Thursday) of a proposal for a meeting of the Executive, backed by six Ministers, has prevented a much-needed collective discussion of the problems we face.
"As things stand, the First Minister is vetoing a meeting of one of the institutions - the Executive - and vetoing attendance of the responsible Minister at another institution - the North-South Ministerial Council.
"This flies in the face of a central element of the Good Friday Agreement - that Unionists and Nationalists will operate these institutions in partnership."