Welcome to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly

About the Assembly

The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly was founded to promote co-operation between political representatives in Britain and Ireland for the benefit of the people they represent.

The Assembly was established in 1990 as the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, to provide a link between the two Houses of the UK Parliament and the two Houses of the Oireachtas.

The first plenary session took place in London in February 1990.

In April 1998 the Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement between the UK Government and the Government of Ireland provided for the establishment of a British-Irish Council bringing together the governments of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It further provided that “the elected institutions of the members [of the Council] will be encouraged to develop interparliamentary links, perhaps building on the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body”.

In pursuit of this aim, in 2001 membership of the Body was enlarged to include the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru (the Welsh Assembly), the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Isle of Man’s parliament, the Tynwald and the legislatures (“States”) of Guernsey and of Jersey.

In 2008, the name British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly was adopted.