A deal preserving the Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland and the UK after Brexit is to be signed today.
The memorandum of understanding between the two governments allows citizens of both countries to cross the Irish border and move freely between Britain and Ireland.
It allows cross-border access to education and healthcare.
The non-legally binding understanding will be signed by Irish and British ministers at a Cabinet Office meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London today.
It is part of a renewed bid to restore devolved power-sharing at Stormont, launched after the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry.
Working groups addressing contested issues like identity are due to begin operating today.
The CTA predates Ireland and the UK’s membership of the EU.
There was no legally binding international agreement which established its terms and it was largely based on trust. The memo is an attempt to reinforce that understanding.
It is expected to be signed by Tanaiste Simon Coveney and UK Cabinet minister David Lidington, with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley in attendance.
The intergovernmental conference is provided for by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and facilitates bilateral co-operation between Ireland and Britain.
It was resurrected after seldom being used because of the absence of a breakthrough at Stormont.
The fresh power-sharing talks process began in Belfast on Tuesday.
Leaders of the five main parties acknowledged mounting public impatience and anger at a stalemate that has left the region without a functioning devolved government for over two years.
They held a short round-table meeting at Stormont House yesterday afternoon for the first exchanges of a new process initiated by the Irish and UK governments.
The process will involve agenda-setting and stock-taking meetings between the five leaders and two governments at least once a week, with five working groups to focus on the detail of key disputes at the heart of the deadlock.
The last DUP/Sinn Féin-led power-sharing coalition imploded in January 2017 when the late Martin McGuinness quit as Sinn Féin deputy first minister amid a row about a botched green energy scheme.
The fallout over the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was soon overtaken by disputes over the Irish language, the region’s ban on same-sex marriage and the toxic legacy of the Troubles.
Six previous initiatives to restore devolution failed to find consensus.
Speaking after a Chamber event on post-Brexit Citizens’ rights, Director General of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, John McGrane said:
“The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding is an important milestone for citizens across these islands. Commitments have been made from both governments to formalize CTA rights and Irish and UK citizens will welcome the positive conclusion of this process.”
The CTA helps support the €70 billion annual trade between our countries. It has resulted in there being more Irish Directors of UK companies than any other foreign nationality and it has contributed to Irish companies being the fifth largest foreign owners of UK firms.
“Today’s agreement will go some way to protecting these achievements.
“However, the British Irish Chamber of Commerce remains clear in its view that the best way of protecting the economic and social links between these islands is through an orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU followed by an unprecedented close future relationship. We encourage public representatives on all sides to work together to make this happen.”