The Speaker of the House of Keys, the Hon Juan Watterson SHK, has attended the 66th British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) plenary in Ireland.

Mr Speaker is pictured third row, fifth from the left, with BIPA plenary delegates. Photo: Dermot Byrne

Held on Monday April 15 and Tuesday April 16 in County Wicklow, the plenary was arranged by The Houses of the Oireachtas and opened by the newly elected Taoiseach, Mr Simon Harris.
The plenary also heard from the Irish Minister of State with responsibility for tourism, Deputy Thomas Byrne, the British Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Paul Johnston and the Irish Ambassador to Britain, His Excellency Martin Fraser.

The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly brings together politicians from the UK Parliament, the Oireachtas, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Crown Dependencies. Since the Assembly was founded in 1994 it has played an important part in bringing politicians to build and sustain peace in Northern Ireland, work that continues, 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement.

The Assembly also does work on British-Irish relations; social, economic and political issues across the borders of the different jurisdictions. Mr Speaker is a member of a committee looking at defence, security and police cooperation between Britain, Ireland, the EU and NATO.

Mr Speaker with the Irish co-chair, Brendan Smith TD, and Irish and UK clerks to the Assembly

Mr Speaker is the first person from the Isle of Man to co-chair a session of BIPA’s proceedings. He said: ‘Representing the Isle of Man at BIPA is a rare opportunity for the Island to take part in discussions on cross-border issues from Brexit, energy, housing, and defence, security and policing. It is an excellent forum for ideas from other jurisdictions about common problems, which saves us in the Isle of Man re-inventing the wheel. It is also notable that despite the Isle of Man being one of the smallest jurisdictions in BIPA, we still have a lot to contribute.’

Mr Speaker with the British Ambassador to Ireland, the Irish Ambassador to Britain and Brendan Smith TD, BIPA co-chair

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Costs to the Isle of Man will be published in due course on the Tynwald website.

For further information contact:

Joann Corkish
Deputy Clerk of Tynwald
Legislative Buildings
Douglas
IM1 3PW
Tel: 01624 685511
j.corkish@tynwald.org.im