Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on which dates in 2018 (a) Ministers and (b) officials met with Irish counterparts to discuss the Voisinage Agreement.

The UK Government remains committed to the principles behind the Voisinage Agreement and to continued cooperation between Northern Ireland and Ireland. I wrote to Minister Creed, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on 6 June to reiterate our concerns about the suspension of the Voisinage Agreement by Ireland. The Secretary of State further raised the issue with Minister Creed when they met on 13 June. Defra officials have also raised the matter with Irish counterparts on separate occasions.