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FINANCE MINISTER MICHAEL McGrath will meet with his Stormont counterpart Caoimhe Archibald in Belfast later today.
McGrath will also visit a number of projects in the city supported by the Government’s Reconciliation Fund.
He said: “This meeting provides an excellent opportunity to discuss our shared economic interests, the all-island economy and the shared opportunities and challenges we face.
“Recent years have brought great uncertainty and challenge in both political and economic terms, but we now have an opportunity – with the Executive restored and greater certainty around key issues such as post-Brexit trade – to maximise the potential of the economic relationships on this island.
“There has always been the potential to further develop cross-border trade and recent years have shown what can be achieved – at the start of this decade total trade in goods and services amounted to under €5 billion, while in 2022 this rose to €11.6 billion, involving a 15% increase over 2021.”
McGrath added: “Peace and prosperity remain at the core of our work, and while the focus of my meeting will be on our work for shared prosperity – including in the context of the Shared Island Initiative – I will also take time to visit some projects supported by the Government’s Reconciliation Fund devoted to ongoing reconciliation and community work.”
The meeting comes as the UK Government tabled a parliamentary motion stating that there is no basis in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for joint authority with the Republic of Ireland in the governance of Northern Ireland.
The move follows a commitment in the Command Paper “Safeguarding the Union”, which led to the restoration of the Stormont powersharing executive after two years of political deadlock.
The UK Government agreed the deal with the DUP, which included the pledge to provide a mechanism for Parliament to re-affirm its commitment to the Acts of Union.
The motion has been tabled as a Humble Address, a mechanism by which Parliament communicates with the British king.
The motion welcomes the return of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland and re-affirms the “importance of upholding the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement 1998 in all its strands”.
It also acknowledges the “foundational importance of the Acts of Union 1800, including the economic provisions under Article 6 of those Acts”.
It continues: “Recognising that, consistent with section 23(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, executive power in Northern Ireland shall continue to be vested in His Majesty, and that joint authority is not provided for in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement 1998 in respect of the UK and Irish Governments.”
It will be debated in the Commons and the Lords on dates to be announced.
The DUP ended its two year boycott of devolved government in Northern Ireland earlier this month after striking a deal with the Government which party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said met his concerns over post-Brexit trading arrangements and sovereignty.
With the Assembly restored, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill has become the first nationalist First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Her party leader Mary Lou McDonald has predicted that an Irish unity poll will be held before 2030.
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Great pilot to land plane a hero. Great job
@Thomas Linehan: She’s an ex F18 fighter pilot – one of the first female F18 pilots. Heard some of the radio communications of the flight. She sounded completely cool and in control. After the flight she spoke personally to every passenger before they left the aircraft. A wonderful pilot.
@Deborah Blacoe: Well said! Hopefully it will shut up some of those ‘ Woman can’t fly a plane/drive a car’ idiots.
@Michael Evans: They still exist?!
@Deborah Blacoe: fantastic , but again as I commented yesterday there was a time where if there was a catastrophic engine failure of this kind that they would immediately ground the planes with these engines as its too much risk allowing passengers to fly when they dont know the cause and level of risk but it looks like they are putting the dollars before the safety !!!! They were so lucky the whole plane didn’t go down killing all on board – the business model for Southwest ( and Ryanair followed ) is that they use the same type plane for fleet and same engines – this means that the business effect of having to ground the whole airline is simply too big and costly and they are taking risks keeping these up in the air until they identify with some certainty they are safe. Remember they tested these engines a week before the crash and they passed the tests yet exploded mid air killing one and lucky to avoid a whole castrophe – pretty shameful to take such risks until its resolved – id be pretty piiiiised if I lost a family relative because the airline is taking these risks with faulty engines .
@Dave Hammond: checking engines can be done on a stepped basis. They airline is given a set amount of flying hours within which to check engines. If the check hasn’t been completed by then, the aircraft is grounded.
@Deborah Blacoe: the point Deborah is that this engine had been checked days beforehand and passed as safe ????? They don’t know what caused the engine to disintegrate midair ?? You are also missing the other key point – with the evolvement of low cost airline business models – the airline uses ONE TYPE of engine / plane in the fleet to reduce business complexity for parts / maintenance etc – but when there is a catastrophe like this they are unable to ground the effected planes because it means the whole fleet cannot fly – (previously they always grounded a particular plane /engine type when there was an accident / deaths …..but not now. You are falling for the spin / nonsense that they can ‘ check them on a stepped basis ??? Now Think about that for a second ?? The test that was done on this engine days before PASSED !
@Dave Hammond: I am not missing any ‘point’. I am stating a fact. I have never commented on the rights or wrongs of it.
I think OMG’s reference is to the last picture in the article where three people are shown with the oxygen mask over their mouths, not noses and mouths as demonstrated in the safety briefings..
@Kevin O’Doherty: it depends on the size of the mask.
@Michael Lang: and what’s the excuse for having the elastic strap just dangling down rather than around their head?
@Colm O’Leary: putting it on quickly? Passenger partially panicking and just placing the mask against their mouth as getting the air was their highest priority?
You know what, who knows, and I doubt the various aviation safety ‘experts’ commenting on here know either.
I just about to say – None of them have the mask over their noses!
Spot the passengers who were reading the newspaper/chatting to their friends while the safety briefing was been conducted.
Never fails to amaze me how thick some people are.
@OMG!: I’ve been on a lot of planes in my time and I’m pretty sure there has never been any instruction on what to do if you get partially sucked out of a broken window. The lady in question was wearing her seat belt so I’m struggling to see the merit of your comment.
@OMG!: seriously that must be one of the dumbest comments ever on this site. Show some respect
@OMG!: frequent flyers don’t need to listen to such briefings.
@Bingobango: I could be wrong, but I think he’s talking about the fact the people in the photo don’t have their oxygen masks on correctly…
@Bingobango: be interesting to see if seatbelt was been worn at the time and if it would have changed the outcome if it was.
@Davy MacIomhair: The plane was most likely at a safe level of flight where oxygen masks are not required. The pilot descended as soon as cabin pressure was lost, that is the procedure. There doesn’t seem to be mass hysteria or panic here so I stand by my comment and feel the original posters comment was without merit in the context of this tragedy.
If you read more carefully it says that seatbelt was worn by the woman sitting next to the window.
@Ted Logan
@Bingobango: yet the oxygen masks still dropped from the ceiling…. So what do you expect people to do… Sit there and say.
“Hmmm.. I reckon we’re at a safe level of flight, I don’t need these masks…”
Good man.
@Davy MacIomhair: Of course they dropped, the cabin had a explosive decompression. There is only enough oxygen for 15 minutes so I’m pretty sure they were at a safe level of flight when this photo was taken. People harping on about not listening to the safety instructions and complaining that their oxygen masks aren’t fitted correctly are just being ridiculous. Good man.
@Bingobango: but their masks *arent* fitted correctly, and you’re assuming that photo was taken at a safe level of flight. Stop assuming stuff.
@Davy MacIomhair: Can we say a prayer for all those on the flight that lost their lives due to incorrectly fitted oxygen masks.
@OMG!: maybee they are frequent flyers .it amazes me how many people have to be told something before it sinks in .are you one of them.I know the drill off by heart.it never changes.
@Bingobango: I was reading it blew at 38000ft. I’d imagine that loosing a window at that altitude would result in pretty explosive decompression.
@Nauris Serna: Exactly. Hence why the poor woman got sucked out.
@Nauris Serna: It blew out at FL320 or 32000 feet, In the event of such an incident/accident you decent to FL100/10000 feet were the body can breath easily without using supplemental oxygen.
They do have a relatively young fleet but they would be concerned that the business model they use was a direct copy of Southwest – standardise the number of planes/engine types in the fleet etc – and they should be concerned that this engine passed the safety test days before this happened ?? I would suggest they would know that the business risk is huge on two levels – one is that the public react and question / doubt or lose confidence that low cost operators model isn’t compromising the safety of passengers with how far they can use these engines etc before a tragedy like this ? And secondly that they find something what caused the accident here is some fundamental flaw to the engines that may need global mandatory grounding because their exposure would be fairly significant.
What about our airline that flies B737s…Do they have this type of engine.
@tom McCormack If you mean Ryanair yes they also use the CFM engines.
@tom McCormack: that aircraft was nearly 20 years old afaik..ryanair has a relatively young fleet
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