The North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) (, Ulster-Scots: ) is a body established under the Good Friday Agreement to co-ordinate activity and exercise certain governmental powers across the whole island of Ireland.
The Council takes the form of meetings between ministers from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and is responsible for twelve policy areas. Six of these areas are the responsibility of corresponding North/South Implementation Bodies. The body is based in the city of Armagh in Northern Ireland.
The North/South Ministerial Council and the Northern Ireland Assembly are "mutually inter-dependent" institutions: one cannot exist without the other. When the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended, responsibility for areas of co-operation fall to the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.
Organisation
The Ministerial Council consists of representatives of both the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland. The Ministerial Council may meet in either a plenary or, more commonly, sectoral format. In a plenary meeting a Northern Ireland delegation is led by the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland while the Republic's delegation is led by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
A meeting in a sectoral format deals only with one particular policy area, and consists of the minister from Dublin with responsibility for the area under discussion, and two ministers from Northern Ireland (usually one unionist and one nationalist), including the minister with the relevant competence. The council is supported by a standing joint secretariat, consisting of members of the civil services of both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The council also has occasional meetings in an "institutional" format to consider other business and technical matters, such as appointments to boards. Sectoral meetings occur more frequently at various locations.
The level of co-operation differs across areas. For example, co-operation on tourism proceeded very rapidly (creating Tourism Ireland in 2000). On the other hand, there was initially little co-operation in the area of transport. At first because of resistance from the relevant minister in Northern Ireland and later because, after the restoration of the Council following suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly, because the British and Irish governments had already done much of the work during a period of direct rule.