The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, yesterday met his Northern counterpart, Mr Martin McGuinness, to discuss cross-Border co-operation on education in defiance of Mr David Trimble's refusal to sanction the attendance of Sinn Fein Ministers at North-South Ministerial Council meetings.
Dr Woods and Mr McGuinness met in Dublin outside the auspices of the NSMC. They discussed co-operation in special needs education, matters related to early school-leaving, child protection and exchange programmes. They also discussed the scope for co-operation open to their two departments in the context of EU programmes, as well as the benefits to both systems of a joint approach to co-operation with the US.
A meeting of the two education ministers had originally been scheduled for last week under the auspices of the NSMC.
