The second session of the North South Consultative Forum lost the run of itself a little bit. It was an open session for any organisation to suggest agendas and talk about their experiences of North South activity. There was nothing new in this!
There were several complaints that there were no representatives from OFMDFM at the Forum. According to the Dept. of the Taoiseach they were invited. I have my doubts about how much pushing there was to get some representative down.
A North South Consultative Forum must have buy in from both administrations North and South if it is to be relevant. Extra buy in from the EU and a reluctant British government would also be welcome.
It is very hard to decide what the purpose of this meeting was. Was it to gauge support for such a forum? If so it was a waste of time as it is in the St Andrews Agreement therefore there has to be one. I would like to know what the goals of the Taoiseach were for this meeting.
For me the meeting was great - i networked with over 200 organisations and made some good contacts. It would have been good to meet organisations from the South but there were very few there.
At the end of the meeting (which was recorded) there was no suggestion of a next meeting or what the next steps were - steering group, agenda setting, resource identification...
It will be interesting to see if this will be carried forward. If so, one question - what does it add to what already exists. More on the twitter
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