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DUP: Edwin Poots will attend next North South Ministerial Council

PA Media Edwin Poots, Paul Givan and Micheál MartinPA Media
Edwin Poots, Paul Givan and Micheál Martin after the meeting

Democratic Unionist Party leader Edwin Poots has said he will lead DUP ministers at this month's North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) in Dublin.

Mr Poots had denied boycotting some meetings in protest against the NI Protocol.

After his first meeting as party leader with Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin, he confirmed plans to attend the next meeting.

Mr Martin said they had shared an "open exchange of views".

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Martin said they discussed a number of issues including north-south cooperation, the protocol and Covid-19.

He said he recognised the "genuine concerns in unionist and loyalist communities around the protocol".

The taoiseach said the focus must be on getting issues resolved and an "obvious way to do this would be to reach agreement between the EU and UK on a temporary veterinary agreement - which would do away with 80% of checks at NI ports".

Mr Poots, who described the meeting as "positive, frank and useful", said most of their discussion had focused on the protocol.

The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal that creates the Irish Sea border.

He said they also talked about fulfilling commitments made in the New Deal New Decade agreement in a timely fashion.

Before Thursday's meeting took place, he had said there was "a lot of anger" among the unionist community towards the protocol and said north-south relations "have never been as bad".

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"I do not blame the current taoiseach for that, I blame the past taoiseach," Mr Poots said.

"Northern Ireland cannot be a plaything of the European Union or indeed of the southern government."

'It isn't working'

Later, on Irish broadcaster RTÉ's Prime Time programme, Mr Poots said he did not believe the protocol, as it currently exists, "is fixable".

"It is an international agreement that isn't working," he added.

"The 15,000 checks per week, more than there would be in the port of Rotterdam - in Belfast and Larne, from goods coming from Britain to a population of 1.8 million, is not feasible, it is not deliverable, it is not implementable and will not be implemented.

"Europe needs to wake up and smell the coffee here."

The new DUP leader said he planned to go to the British Irish Council meeting in Fermanagh next week.

He said he believed outgoing First Minister Arlene Foster "would like to lead on that and I would very much like her to do that".

His comments were made after Sinn Féin joined the SDLP in seeking legal advice over the DUP's non-attendance at North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meetings.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood told BBC NI's The View on Thursday night that Mr Poots' confirmation that he would attend the next NSMC meeting was "good news".

"I am glad to see it, because the north-south institutions are a key part of the Good Friday Agreement," he said.

"There wouldn't have been a Good Friday Agreement frankly that nationalists would have been involved in if there wasn't a north-south dimension, and I want all of the three strands of the Good Friday Agreement to be fully implemented."

Edwin Poots says north-south relationships 'have never been as bad'

The NSMC is the main body for cross-border co-operation between the governments of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Under the DUP's five-point plan in protest at post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, ministers are refusing to take part in north-south engagement where the protocol is being discussed.

Mr Poots was criticised earlier this month for preventing what was billed as a "long-standing meeting" relating to agriculture from taking place.

He told a Stormont committee earlier on Thursday, speaking in his capacity as NI agriculture minister, that he had every intention of fulfilling his ministerial obligations.

"At no point have I refused to attend north-south meetings," he said.

Mr Poots told a Stormont committee he had every intention of fulfilling his ministerial obligations

Earlier on Thursday, DUP MLA Paul Givan said any legal action over non-attendance at NSMC meetings would be an overreaction and should be a "last resort".

Mr Givan said there had to be a recognition of the opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

However, the SDLP's Nichola Mallon said she firmly believed the DUP was in breach of the ministerial code.

Paul Givan
DUP MLA Paul Givan said legal action should be a last resort

She also accused the DUP of being "dishonest" in how it has communicated its absences from NSMC meetings.

On Wednesday, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill had called on Mr Poots to attend this month's meeting, saying the boycott cannot "be allowed to continue".