2026-02-24

19. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [10446/26]

20. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the British-Irish Council summit. [10456/26]

21. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at a meeting of the British-Irish Council. [11845/26]

22. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [70935/25]

23. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [70936/25]

24. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [70937/25]

25. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [70938/25]

26. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at a meeting of the British-Irish Council. [70963/25]

27. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit in Wales. [7695/26]

28. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at a meeting of the British-Irish Council. [9963/26]

29. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the 44th British-Irish Council summit. [13982/26]

30. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at a meeting of the British-Irish Council. [14300/26]

31. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the British-Irish Council summit. [14750/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 to 31, inclusive, together. On 5 December, I attended the 44th British-Irish Council summit hosted by the Welsh Government in Hensol in Wales. The theme of the summit was a creative future and unlocking the potential of the creative industries across these island, with a particular focus on the screen sector. I was joined at the plenary by a number of Ministers. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I updated council members on latest political developments, including in regard to Ukraine and the Middle East. On the margins of the summit, I had bilateral meetings with United Kingdom Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Northern Ireland First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, and Chief Minister of the Isle of Man, Alfred Cannan. British-Irish Council work sector groups are structured around three pillars, namely climate and decarbonisation, culture and heritage and economic and social inclusion, encompassing ten individual work sectors. Ministerial meetings in 2025 included one on transport in Belfast in April, an environmental ministerial in London in May and an early years ministerial in November. An energy work sector ministerial meeting hosted by the UK Government took place in London on 12 February. The meeting was co-chaired by the UK and Scottish Governments. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, represented the Government at that event. I look forward to attending the next British-Irish Council summit to be hosted in Guernsey later this year. At the UK-Ireland summit held in Liverpool last year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I agreed a wide-ranging programme of new and enhanced strategic co-operation entitled UK-Ireland 2030, to be taken forward by both Governments through to 2030. At our meeting at Chequers in September, the Prime Minister and I discussed progress under UK-Ireland 2030 six months on from the summit. We discussed infrastructure delivery, protection of subsea infrastructure, emergency planning, cultural partnerships and achieving renewable energy targets including across this island, North and South, as areas of shared interest. The next UK-Ireland summit due to be held in Ireland next month will be a key opportunity to take stock of our bilateral relations and to identify areas for greater co-operation to benefit people across these islands. As we continue preparations for the upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union, we are committed to working with all concerned to advance European Union-United Kingdom relations as set out in the common understanding agreed last May, recognising, in particular, the benefits that an sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, agreement will have for businesses and consumers in Northern Ireland. We further welcome the agreement of the EU security and defence partnership. We welcome the joint statement by the European Commission and the UK in December signalling their intention to reach agreement on SPS, emissions trading systems linkage and an EU-UK youth experience scheme by the time of the next EU-UK summit, which is due to be held later this year.

On the question of the UK and Ireland, Prince Andrew - I will still call him Prince Andrew in order to not dissociate him from the royal family - and the former UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, have been questioned or arrested in relation to the widespread international abusive behaviour linked with Jeffrey Epstein against children and young women or complicity in same. The Prime Minister of the UK could potentially be brought down over this. Does it not raise the issue of how seriously violence against women and children is taken in society when not one man has yet been jailed for the wide-scale abuse revealed in the Epstein files? The Taoiseach has chosen to go ahead with presenting shamrock on St. Patrick's Day and to smile and nod in the Oval Office of the White House at a man who is named in the Epstein files more times than Jesus is named in the Bible. That is the reality, yet there have been no political repercussions in the US whatsoever. The Taoiseach may wonder why I am raising this issue. I am of the view that it should be discussed in every parliament in the world. That is how important it is. Is the Taoiseach going to go ahead and greet-----

The Deputy is taking time from the other speakers.

-----someone who is clearly a paedophile and who has engaged in all sorts of other abusive behaviour he participated in? He is clearly a paedophile.

I presume the Taoiseach saw the news ten or so days ago about the UK High Court's ruling to the effect that the proscription and banning of Palestine Action as a terror group is unlawful and disproportionate. The court also directed that it should be overturned. It was heartening to see the scenes of many protestors being released from prison. They are heroes. They are not criminals. They are people who have put their bodies on the line to try to stop the war machine responsible for a genocide in Palestine, but there are still many Palestinian activists who are in limbo and in prison. The UK Government has maintained the proscription of Palestine Action and intends to appeal the ruling. In Ireland, many Palestine solidarity activists, including those in Palestine Action, are still being dragged through courts on trumped-up charges. What does the Taoiseach say about the slide into authoritarianism happening across much of the western world, which is driven by attempts to suppress criticism of the genocidal State of Israel, and the use of anti-terror laws?

I would like to ask about this from a cultural point of view. There are a lot of things that we can benefit from that can come out of the British-Irish Council. I see local opportunities, particularly in County Louth, to enhance our Irish language, arts and music between communities. Omeath District Development, for example, has led a project. It is doing incredible work unveiling and celebrating our last Gaelic speakers in north Louth. The last native speaker was Anne O'Hanlon who died in 1960. She was from Lislea in Omeath. We need to celebrate stories like that and celebrate our Irish language. There is an opportunity, particularly when we look at cross-Border co-operation and our history with the flight of the Fadgies from Omeath to west Belfast. There are cultural opportunities that we need to focus on cross-Border and between our two islands.

Mar aon leis an Teachta McGreehan, díreoidh mé freisin ar cheist na teanga agus céard is féidir linn foghlaim ónár gcomhghleacaithe sa Bhreatain Bheag ach go háirithe. I attended a number of engagements in Wales earlier this week where we saw first hand the approach the Welsh Government has taken with regard to growing and nurturing the Welsh language through its education system and different cultural system. What struck me was the sheer multiplicity of approaches that are being taken by the central Welsh Government but also by the local authorities in terms of the immersion in education. They have created a full pipeline - from primary through to secondary through to tertiary - ensuring that people have access to Welsh-language education. I encourage the Taoiseach to think about that in our approach to second level education and that it is not just the aonad model but we have full immersion Gaelcholáistí and an abundance of those, especially in the midlands part of the country as well.

It will not come as any shock to the Taoiseach that I believe we need to have a proper engagement with the British Government from a point of view of a Border poll. The Government needs to get real about the possibility of constitutional change and has to prepare for this. That is an absolute necessity. There is a huge level of cross-Border issues that we could deal with now, irrespective of those issues that there are failings on - for example, issues in relation to taxation, in that remote working cannot be done cross-Border at this point in time. It is quite a big issue for a number of people in my constituency and the constituencies that border it. We have people who are being impacted now in relation to social protection payments, for example, if they were in a term-time job and are working in the other jurisdiction. There are a number of these issues. We need to find a means of dealing with them because we cannot just keep talking about them anymore.

During an interview with TG4 last week, the Taoiseach was recorded as saying that there is not a lot of substance in the current campaign for a referendum on Irish unity. The Taoiseach's dismissive attitude is very disappointing, especially given the hard work that many organisations are currently doing to advance the case for a united Ireland, such as Ireland's Future. Unfortunately, these organisations are doing the job the Government should be doing in terms of actively preparing and planning for Irish unity. When will the Government finally begin to actively promote and work towards a unity referendum on our island?

On Deputy Coppinger's contribution, the one person who was convicted was Jeffrey Epstein, and rightly so in terms of the horrific crimes he was found guilty of. With others, such as Ghislaine Maxwell, it seems he ran a very depraved criminal network trafficking young women. The law must take its course on that.

Children.

Yes, and children.

Not young women.

It was young women as well, and children. The Deputy does not have a monopoly of horror on what happened. I will simply say that the law must take its course. There should be thorough and comprehensive investigations before we arrive at conclusions in terms of anyone else named in that. That is what is happening in the United Kingdom, although it is on a different issue in terms of material that emerged in respect of the former Prince Andrew and the former UK ambassador to the US and former Minister, Peter Mandelson, who have been arrested. It is a matter for the police forces to pursue that. In our view, that is what has to happen. There is no doubt that people are shocked about what has been revealed. There are more files to be revealed. The sooner that they are released in a wholly transparent manner the better. Regarding Deputy Murphy's case, in many ways what that reveals too are the checks and balances within every political system and democracies. The authoritarian governments have been long established. There is increasing authoritarianism. In the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court ruled, so the checks and balances worked at the end of the day. That does not happen in every other country. There is a growth and increase in authoritarianism in countries like Hungary, Russia, Belarus and some African countries including the Sahel, where Russia has intervened and established essentially puppet governments. There have been coups d'état in these places, getting rid of democratically elected governments. The increase in authoritarianism is a worry. Deputy McGreehan point was very interesting even though she did not get enough time to elaborate on it. I refer her to a shared island initiative called Shared Home Place.

We have a grant-----

There is an application in for support. That is designed to capture exactly what the Deputy articulated regarding the story of Omeath, the Irish language and the migratory pathway to west Belfast. That would be very interesting. I presume the county council or somebody has submitted this and it can be covered. We will keep an eye out for that. That is exactly what was envisaged by the Shared Home Place initiative out of the shared island initiative. On Deputy Moynihan's point, the Welsh approach to the rejuvenation of the Welsh language is the gold standard template that we should all endeavour to emulate. We have, as a country, in terms of TG4, which was really inspired by Welsh TV. There is Raidió na Gaeltachta and the other initiatives we have taken. I fully support full immersion Gaelcholáistí but the aonaid have a place too. I do not think it is an either-or all the time. From an educational perspective, there are pluses and merits. In Cork, we have quite a number of full immersion and we have aonaid that have worked extremely well also. There is a strong tradition in our part of the country in the whole Gaelscolaíocht area and Gaelcholáistí. It has made a lot of progress. On Deputy Ó Murchú's point on taxation and remote working, it is an issue that we discussed recently in the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, group, which is the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, group of unions, IBEC and the Government. We meet regularly on labour market issues but we discussed this. This is an ongoing issue - the taxation treatment of workers North and South - and I am concerned about it. If I am honest, we have not made a whole of progress on it. The Department of Finance is working on it. It is meant to be developing a paper for us. I will pursue that with it. It is a fair point. On Deputy O'Hara's point, what I said as Gaeilge was that there was a lot more substance in the shared island project than the Sinn Féin platform. For decades, I have been listening to Sinn Féin saying that Government must do this and Government must do that. It has not even produced a paper. It has not produced a single paper on its vision other than slogans. The shared island-----

I will get them sent to the Taoiseach.

I am talking to Deputy O'Hara. Deputy Mac Lochlainn did not ask the question.

I will get them to the Taoiseach. He has asked for them now.

The shared island initiative is the most substantive initiative in 50 or 60 years in terms of investment in Northern Ireland by a Government in the Republic. Those are facts. I get on with the pragmatic connecting of people in every aspect of life. It is not just about building roads, which we are doing, building bridges, which we are doing with the Narrow Water Bridge, or the Ulster Canal. It is about the investment in research. It is about the investment in Cuilcagh, for example, and geopark. It is about investment in Irish language in terms of different traditions of music. The musical archive has been a wonderful, funded project from the shared island initiative. A lot of people are responding very positively to it, without any prejudice to the constitutional future of the island, which is well laid out-----

The Taoiseach has to deal with the constitutional issue.

-----in the Good Friday Agreement as how we proceed. Fianna Fáil has always believed in substance on the North. We had a critical role to play-----

What about the preparation for unity?

-----in the Good Friday Agreement. Now, we are in a modern era. We are living out the Wolfe Tone ideal of connecting people and reconciliation. That is a very important thing to do.

I skipped a Member in terms of his question. With permission of the House, Deputy Hayes can ask it now.

I thank the Taoiseach for his indulgence on this. The trade between Ireland and the UK is worth about €100 billion, while our total trade is worth about €350 billion. The gross value added of our creative industries is about €8 billion whereas that of the UK's creative industries is £124 billion. That is a little disproportionate in light of our population. It is no wonder. I have some concerns about our investment in the arts more generally. The basic income scheme is capped at 2,000 applicants and there are certain restrictions on people reapplying. As the Taoiseach will know, The Complex in Dublin was closed. There are also planning permission conflicts between hotels and nightclubs and the word "arts" has been removed from the name of the Department of culture. This can be contrasted with the success of individuals, particularly in the British market. I think of Jessie Buckley, who won a BAFTA, and writers like Sally Rooney, who was unable to receive her Sky Arts Award in person because of her pro-Palestine Action stance. I also think of musicians like Jazzy, Reggie, Damien Rice and Hozier. At the summit we are talking about, the Taoiseach said he needed to reflect on developments in the wider European and international context that affect all of our jurisdictions. I would like to hear about how the Taoiseach will support creative industries in Ireland to diversify in terms of trade with the UK and other countries and about what we can do with other countries within the British-Irish Council to support creative industries.

Over the past five years, we have invested very significantly in the creative industries and in the arts. This Government will continue to do that. I believe passionately in the arts. The arts have a central and civilising role within society. They create opportunities for analysis, reflection, critical inquiry and diversity. It is wonderful to witness the flowering of talent and ability from generation to generation. A new generation is coming on the scene. It was fantastic to see Jessie Buckley recently being awarded a BAFTA. I also think of the success of Cillian Murphy. I am sorry; I did not mean to knock over Deputy Dooley's notes. It was just a creative flourish. The basic income scheme is a first. It has not happened in every sector but it has happened in the arts sector. Overall, we have constraints but there has been a tremendous flourishing of writers and in the worlds of drama, film and music. We need to maintain, sustain and celebrate that. Britain has always created wonderful opportunities for Irish artists. I hate using the word "market" but it provides a very important opportunity for our creative people. It is very often a testing ground before we go further afield. Our relationship with the US is also important as regards the arts.