The Irish and British governments are to hold an intergovernmental conference next month, one of the mechanisms put in place by the Good Friday Agreement.
The Government has for several months been seeking for such a meeting to take place because of the political vacuum created by the collapse of Stormont.
A number of parties, including Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Fianna Fáil, have pressed both Dublin and London to convene an IGC.
The leader of the British Labour Party, Jermyn Corbyn, also raised the issue when he visited Northern Ireland last month.
Pleased to confirm a British Irish Intergovernmental Conference has been agreed between both Governments for 25th July, London. This is an important Good Friday Agreement structure for dialog and consultation and will have an agenda dealing with East/West and NI issues @rtenews
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 28, 2018
Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald said: "Sinn Féin has been calling for an intergovernmental conference to take place for months now in order to pave a way for the restoration of power-sharing in the North.
"I very much welcome the announcement that the conference will be held next month."
