Cross-border agencies need to be reinstated immediately now that the DUP has agreed to return to power-sharing at Stormont. Cavan-Monaghan TD Brendan Smith made the comments on the Joe Finnegan Show earlier.
When the Democratic Unionist Party decided to boycott the Northern Assembly almost two years ago over post-Brexit trade arrangements, all the cross-border bodies were affected. Waterways Ireland, Foras na Gaeilige, the Food Safety Authority, Inter Trade Ireland and the north-south ministerial body are just some of the agencies tasked to promote business, farming and culture links between the people on both sides of the border.
Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith was at the signing of the Downing Street Declaration, the precursor to the Good Friday Agreement, 30 years ago. He has been following the situation in the north for all that time and says he is "cautiously optimistic" but "confident" that Stormont will be back up and running by the February 8th, and the north-south bodies along with it. "I know Jeffrey Donaldson reasonably well over many, many years and he's a cautious man, he does his homework," Deputy Smith said
