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23/10/2007
NI's Westminster MPs Can Attend Daíl
Unionist MPs are likely to ignore an opportunity to attend committee meetings in the Dublin parliament for the first time.
This is even though a newly-formed Joint Committee in the Daíl aims to monitor the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which would otherwise have been of considerable interest to all of the Northern Ireland-based Westminster MPs.
However, while the privilege is likely to be used by nationalists but boycotted by unionists, even nationals are not entirely happy.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan has said attending committees was "an additional means of engagement on a north/south basis".
He warned it should be no substitute for a north/south parliamentary forum, as envisaged by the Agreement.
Oireachtas committees are cross-party parliamentary bodies made up of Daíl and Seanad members.
They shadow various departments and deal with a range of investigations to advise the government.
Sinn Fein has gone further again and made longstanding calls for speaking rights for Westminster MPs in the Daíl and Seanad.
However, while this was backed by an Oireachtas committee in 2002, the process to implement this has stalled.
(BMcC)
This is even though a newly-formed Joint Committee in the Daíl aims to monitor the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which would otherwise have been of considerable interest to all of the Northern Ireland-based Westminster MPs.
However, while the privilege is likely to be used by nationalists but boycotted by unionists, even nationals are not entirely happy.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan has said attending committees was "an additional means of engagement on a north/south basis".
He warned it should be no substitute for a north/south parliamentary forum, as envisaged by the Agreement.
Oireachtas committees are cross-party parliamentary bodies made up of Daíl and Seanad members.
They shadow various departments and deal with a range of investigations to advise the government.
Sinn Fein has gone further again and made longstanding calls for speaking rights for Westminster MPs in the Daíl and Seanad.
However, while this was backed by an Oireachtas committee in 2002, the process to implement this has stalled.
(BMcC)
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Northern Ireland WeatherToday:Gale, coastal severe gale, northwest winds ease from late afternoon. Scattered showers will fall as snow over the hills at first, becoming isolated from mid-afternoon. Maximum temperature 7 °C.Tonight:Showers, scattered in the evening, will clear by midnight leaving the night dry with clear spells. Cloud will spread east towards morning. Minimum temperature 2 °C.
