Ahern to address committee on accord

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will tomorrow address an Oireachtas Committee on the Belfast Agreement in his final appearance before …

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will tomorrow address an Oireachtas Committee on the Belfast Agreement in his final appearance before a parliamentary committee before standing down next month.

The Committee, set up to help implement the Agreement, allows Westminster MPs from the North to take part in the workings of the Oireachtas for the first time.

The SDLP's South Belfast MP Alastair McDonnell, South Down MP Eddie McGrady, Sinn Fein's Fermanagh/south Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty, MP for West Tyrone all attended the first meeting last November.

They can take part in debates on the April 1998 agreement but do not have a right to vote or to move motions and amendments.

Mr Ahern's address forms part of a series of events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Agreement's signing.