British-Irish Council Research Articles

The Neoliberalisation of the Third Sector Is Almost Complete

This article draws attention to the extent to which third sector organizations have acted as policy catalysts and entrepreneurs for a social investment state, and the extent to which third sector organizations and interests are now dominated by external private and corporate interests. Though the United Kingdom and Ireland are the primary focus, because of the global influence of the British Irish Council and British Council, these developments are now permeating other economies.

Brexit and Strand Three of the 1998 Agreement: The Three Faces of East‐West

Under Strand Three of the 1998 Belfast ‘Good Friday’ Agreement, institutions were set up to promote the ‘harmonious and mutually beneficial development’ of the ‘totality of relationships’ between the peoples and governments of Ireland and the UK, including its devolved administrations and Crown Dependencies. According to the text of the 1998 Agreement this ‘east-west’ dimension was to have two elements with corresponding institutions: an intergovernmental one reflected in the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIC) and an interjurisdictional one reflected in the British-Irish Council (BIC). These Strand Three institutions were designed to provide fora for, respectively, intergovernmental cooperation on ‘non-devolved Northern Ireland matters’ in the case of the BIIC and information exchange and cooperation ‘on matters of mutual interest within the competence of the relevant Administrations’ in the case of the BIC. Nowhere in the 1998 Agreement text is the concept of ‘east-west’ used to refer to relations between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Yet, in the wake of Brexit, and in the midst of controversy over the implications of the Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland, relations between Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB–NI) have been newly framed as ‘east-west’. The creation of this new discursive face of ‘east-west’ relations marks an important, but little discussed, impact of Brexit on the political and constitutional landscape of the UK and Ireland. Against this backdrop, this article considers the impacts of Brexit, and the Protocol, on three faces of ‘east-west’ relations—the BIIC, the BIC and, newly, GB–NI—and discusses their implications for the future of Strand 3 institutions and the ‘totality of relationships’ they represent.

The Future of Northern Ireland: the Role of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement Institutions

AbstractSince the 2016 Brexit referendum a series of crises has gripped Northern Ireland's politics. This has had a destabilising effect across society, which has arguably been felt most acutely by political unionism. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (B/GFA) of 1998 created a series of institutions to deal with political conflict in Northern Ireland, manage cross‐border cooperation and normalise relations between the UK and Ireland. However, many aspects of it have been sparingly and ineffectually deployed, most notably the second and third strands dealing with north/south and east/west relations respectively. In this article, the authors argue that regular use of the institutional arrangements created by the Agreement would help to deal with the challenges currently facing Northern Ireland and help address unionist anxieties over the Protocol. Use of the North‐South Ministerial Council (NSMC), the British Irish Council (BIC) and the British‐Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) should be prioritised. The unresolved issues arising from Brexit require a recommitment to the intergovernmental logic at the heart of the 1998 Agreement, despite the obstacles.

‘Who else would we speak to?’ National Policy Networks in post-devolution Britain: The case of spatial planning

The implementation of the devolution process that started in 1999 was frequently assumed by contemporary commentators and scholars to lead to a fractured relationship with the national centre and a fragmented state as a consequence. However, discourse analysis and policy reviews in relation to spatial planning policies demonstrates that agendas and legislation implemented by central and devolved governments since devolution are characterised by marked similarities in intention and type (albeit with some differences in name and delivery route). In investigating the potential sites and sources of these policy similarities and possible mobilities, and drawing on research data, we suggest that the British Irish Council’s spatial planning task group as one of the potential candidates to be considered as a national policy community or network. Alongside a range of other factors following devolution, this has contributed to development and delivery in one specific policy area that has taken a convergent rather than divergent character.

Policy Convergence, Divergence and Communities: The Case of Spatial Planning in Post-Devolution Britain and Ireland

The implementation of devolution (1999) in the UK was assumed to lead to fractured relationships with the national centre and a fragmented state as a consequence. However, discourse analysis and policy reviews in spatial planning demonstrate that policies and legislation implemented by central and devolved governments since devolution demonstrate marked similarities in intention and type (albeit with some differences in name and delivery route). Having demonstrated a lack of the expected policy divergence, we explore the role of two civil service forums, the British-Irish Council's spatial planning workstream and the ‘Five Administrations’ meetings of Chief Planners as policy communities.

A policy on the move? Spatial planning and State Actors in the post‐devolutionary UK and Ireland

Devolution has led to a dramatic restructuring of the UK state over the last 15 years. Planning is a devolved function and a concerted process of ‘planning reform’ has been implemented by devolved (and central) government since devolution, including a move from ‘land‐use’ to ‘spatial planning’. Despite some expectations of, and pressure for, policy divergence post devolution, we draw on findings of discourse analysis to demonstrate how there are common framings and understandings of the concept of ‘spatial planning’ present in the policy documents of all the UK administrations, and in Ireland. As such, we conceptualise spatial planning as what, after Peck and Theodore (2010, Geoforum 41 169–74), we might consider a ‘policy on the move’. Policy mobility is a fundamentally geographical phenomenon and its presence here raises questions about the mechanisms by which spatial planning has been mobilised. Drawing on interview data, we highlight the role of civil servants who meet through the British–Irish Council's workstream on spatial planning and a forum known as the ‘Five Administrations’ meetings. The relational connections between these state actors suggest that they are key ‘transfer agents’ and their role helps explain some of the path dependency in planning reform post devolution.

British Irish Institutional Structures: Towards a New Relationship

Growing institutional cooperation between the Republic of Ireland and the UK, initially directed explicitly at resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict, has taken the form of three parallel institutional structures. First, an Anglo-Irish (later, British–Irish) Intergovernmental Conference has dealt with matters relating to the government of Northern Ireland in areas to which power is not devolved, and with certain other ‘sovereign’ matters. Second, a British–Irish Council links not just the two sovereign governments but also the devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Third, a matching British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly provides common ground for representatives of the legislative bodies of the same jurisdictions. The paper tracks the evolution of these structures, and assesses the significance of the new institutions for the British–Irish relationship.

Scotland's Sectarianism Problem: Irish Answers?

A series of developments during the 2010–11 football season has led to an intense public debate over the question of the nature and extent of religious sectarianism in Scotland. The Scottish National Party (SNP) government has responded with a new piece of legislation which has been widely criticised and has prompted some commentators to speculate about a political ‘own goal’. This article provides a guide to the debate around sectarianism and its historical and political dimensions. It also suggests that the Irish roots of the problem in Scotland should be properly acknowledged, and that a possible way forward could involve cooperation between Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland within the structures and procedures of the British–Irish Council (BIC).

The British‐Irish Council: Progress Frustrated

The British‐Irish Council (BIC), established by the 1998 Belfast Agreement, includes representatives from the British and Irish governments, the devolved administrations, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It aims to promote the sharing of ideas and practical co-operation on matters of mutual interest across a range of policy areas. The Council may agree 'common policies and actions', but members are free to opt-out and can pursue further bilateral and multilateral co-operation. By summer 2001, though, the BIC had held just one summit and two sectoral meetings. The fate of the Agreement, the changing dynamics of post-devolution British‐Irish relations, the Council's working practices, and the political will and resources of BIC members will dictate its future effectiveness.

Functionalism in Practice: Nordic Lessons for the British-Irish Council

Functionalism in Practice: Nordic Lessons for the British-Irish Council

The British–Irish Council and Devolution

THE BRITISH-IRISH COUNCIL SPRINGS FROM AND IS PROVIDED FOR IN the Belfast Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998. Its coming into force depends upon the implementation of the Agreement. The Council is established, however, not by the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which gives legislative expression to the bulk of this Agreement, but by an international treaty, the British–Irish Agreement, attached to the Belfast Agreement.The Belfast Agreement together with the legislation providing for devolution to Scotland and Wales establishes a new constitutional settlement, both among the nations which form the United Kingdom, and also between those nations and the other nation in these islands, the Irish nation. The United Kingdom itself is, as a result of the Scotland Act and the Government of Wales Act, in the process of becoming a new union of nations, each with its own identity and institutions – a multi-national state, rather than, as many of the English have traditionally seen it, a homogeneous British nation containing a variety of different people.

The Council of the Isles and the Scotland-Northern Ireland Relationship

The British-Irish Council (BIC), colloquially known as The Council of the Isles', forms Strand Three of the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998, the result of the multiparty negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland (The Agreement 1998, pp. 14-16). The BIC will comprise representatives of the British and Irish governments, devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and representatives of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The purpose of the Council, as laid down in the Agreement, will be 'to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships amongst peoples of these islands' (p. 14, para. 1), and 'to exchange information, discuss, consult and use best endeavours to reach agreement on co-operation on matters of mutual interest within the competence of the relevant Administrations' (p. 14, para. 5). In his speech to the Irish Parliament on 26 November 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair related the BIC to his hopes for the development of a common approach and a new era of co-operation between the UK and the Republic of Ireland (Belfast Telegraph 26 November 1998).

The Nature of Devolution in Scotland and Northern Ireland: Key Issues of Responsibility and Control

Under three broad headings, namely, the internal dimension, the Westminster dimension and the intergovernmental dimension, this article seeks to analyse and explore the nature of devolution and to consider factors pertinent to its development. The article, thus, first compares the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998 and of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on the electoral system, the size of the devolved legislature, the power of dissolution and the formation and the scrutiny of the devolved executive. The prime purpose of this section is to identify the principles enshrined in the legislation which may affect the way in which devolution will operate within its own borders. While this first dimension draws on the statutory provisions, the second, dealing with the relationships between the devolved system and Westminster, concerns issues to be regulated almost entirely by non-statutory “understandings” and by parliamentary/assembly Standing Orders. These issues include most crucially the power of the devolved legislature to debate non-devolved matters and the power of Westminster to debate devolved matters. Thirdly, the article deals with the mechanisms of co-operation to be introduced for the discussion of intergovernmental issues throughout the UK, that is, those arising between Westminster, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff. In this context, consideration will be given to the proposed Joint Ministerial Committee. Mention will also be made of the British–Irish Council, although this is a body whose powers will go beyond solely UK devolution concerns.