Health Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeill and her Northern Counterpart Mike Nesbitt have both written to Donegal County Council to reqaffirm their commitment to cross border cooperation.
At the council’s July meeting, Cllr Albert Doherty moved a motion calling for all island cooperation and planning of public health services, saying he believes that is the key to a fairer and more equitable health service on the island.
While neither minister committed to joint planning of services, Cllr Doherty says the responses were very positive……….
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Reply from Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeil –
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the motion adopted by Donegal County Council on 21 July 2025.
Enhancing North-South cooperation is a priority for the Irish Government and I am committed to working with partners in Northern Ireland to improve cooperation in health and social care where there are clear benefits for both jurisdictions and for patients across the island.
There is a long history of cooperation between the Department of Health Ireland and the Department of Health Northern Ireland, with Senior Officials meeting regularly and working together to improve health and social care provision for the benefit of patients across the island. There are also a number of agreements in place covering specific specialist Cross Border initiatives that ensure that patients can receive a range of medical procedures/services as close to home as possible.
The Department of Health is committed to continuing that close and productive cooperation. I invited Minister Nesbitt to see the National Children’s Hospital with me, and more recently met with Minister Nesbitt to discuss cooperation in the health sector at the twenty-sixth North South Ministerial Council Health and Food Safety meeting.
Ongoing engagement at official level continues and includes work on the exploration of those areas of health cooperation that could be further expanded to benefit residents on the island of Ireland on a cross-border basis.
Additionally, health stakeholders North and South of the border continue to work together on Cross Border EU funding programmes. The PEACEPLUS programme, which builds upon the work of the previous PEACE and INTERREG Programmes is a new cross-border funding programme supported by the EU, the Government of the UK, the Government of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Executive. Aiming to ensure equal access to healthcare and fostering resilience in health systems, this will be achieved through a range of collaborative, cross border health and social care initiatives. I am pleased to note that nearly €100 million has been committed to fund health & social care and addiction projects from the Programme which will benefit residents of Northern Ireland but also communities in the border counties of Ireland, namely, counties Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo.
Given the similar health challenges faced by each jurisdiction, working collaboratively to maximise the potential for service planning and delivery is of the utmost importance and, as such, enhancing North-South cooperation will continue to be a priority for the Irish Government.
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Reply from Minister Mike Nesbitt
