103.—(1) The Department must establish and maintain a body to be known as the Partnership Panel for Northern Ireland (“the Panel”).
(2) The Panel may—
(a)give advice to any Northern Ireland department about matters affecting the exercise of any of its functions;
(b)make representations to any Northern Ireland department about any matters affecting, or of concern to, those involved in local government; and
(c)give advice to those involved in local government.
(3) The Panel is to consist of—
(a)councillors;
(b)Ministers; and
(c)a maximum of 5 representatives of such representative body or association of the district councils as appears to the Department to be appropriate,
but this subsection is subject to subsections (4) to (6).
(4) Each council may nominate a councillor to serve as a member of the Panel.
(5) The First Minister and deputy First Minister acting jointly may nominate Ministers to attend particular meetings of the Panel.
(6) Any Minister may attend any meeting of the Panel without having been nominated under subsection (5) to do so.
(7) In this section “Ministers” includes junior Ministers and subject to that any expression used in this section and in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 has the same meaning in this section as in that Act.