Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, together.

I attended the 16th summit of the British-Irish Council in London on 20 June. It was my first attendance at a British-Irish Council summit since becoming Taoiseach. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Nick Clegg; the Scottish Government delegation was led by First Minister, Mr. Alex Salmond; the Welsh Government delegation was led by the First Minister, Mr. Carwyn Jones; while the First Minister, Mr. Peter Robinson, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr. Martin McGuinness, led the delegation from Northern Ireland. Delegations from the other member administrations of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man were also in attendance.

The British Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, greeted the delegations ahead of the summit. In his welcoming remarks he underscored the importance of the British-Irish Council and the intrinsic value of all of the Good Friday institutions. He also commented on the strength of relations between the eight BIC administrations and characterised relations between Britain and Ireland as being at "an all time high" in the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Ireland.

The summit provided an opportunity to give an update on each administration's economic position and have a substantive discussion of the common objectives of promoting economic growth and related challenges and opportunities. The Council discussed how to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth that was more evenly shared across the member administrations. It considered measures to promote economic growth, including incentives for businesses to start, finance and grow a business; encouraging investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy; and creating a more educated and flexible workforce. The Council acknowledged that member administrations should continue to learn from each other's successes and identify synergies across administrations.

The Council welcomed the discussion paper on an all-islands approach, AIA, to energy resources. It agreed the AIA vision of an approach to energy resources across the British islands and Ireland which would enable opportunities for commercial generation and transmission, facilitating the cost-effective exploitation of the renewable energy resources available, increasing integration of their markets and improving security of supply.

The Council discussed progress on the work to establish the BIC standing secretariat. It will receive a further progress report at the next summit in Dublin. A target start date of 1 January 2012 was agreed, subject to final details and related issues being agreed.

The Council noted the progress of each of the 11 sectoral groups of the Council which cover collaborative spatial planning, demography, digital inclusion, early years policy, energy, electricity grid infrastructure, marine renewables, environment, housing, indigenous, minority and lesser used languages, misuse of drugs, social inclusion and transport.

The Council agreed that the autumn British-Irish Council summit in 2011 will be hosted by Ireland.

While attending the summit, I took the opportunity to have bilateral meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Nick Clegg; the First Minister, Mr. Alex Salmond, and the First Minister, Mr.Carwyn Jones. During my bilateral meeting with Mr. Clegg I outlined my belief that the British-Irish Council provided a useful forum for the eight member administrations to find opportunities for practical and mutually beneficial co-operation. I emphasised that we needed to look closely at the areas of work being addressed by the Council to ensure our focus was strategic and producing tangible results. We reflected on the recent successful visit to Ireland of Queen Elizabeth II and commented that it clearly underscored the close and highly developed relationship between Britain and Ireland. We also discussed economic matters and developments at EU level in advance of the European Council meeting which took place later that week. We referred to the interest rate reduction being pursued at EU level and the bilateral loan from Britain. We also discussed Irish emigrant issues, including the Hammersmith centre, Irish construction workers at the Olympic village site and tourism potential from Britain.

When I met with the Scottish First Minister, Mr. Salmond, I congratulated him on his recent electoral success. I stated the Government was fully supportive of the establishment of the BIC standing secretariat in Edinburgh and suggested we propose 1 January 2012 as an opening date. We discussed economic developments in Scotland, including renewable energy projects and the development expertise centres such as Aberdeen. This agreement was made in the context of the commitment by both Governments to the full implementation of the Good Friday and St. Andrews Agreements. I also noted that sectarian issues had, regrettably, come to the forefront in Scotland in the last few months and welcomed the Scottish Government's concerted efforts to deal with these difficulties.

During my meeting with Mr. Jones I congratulated him on his electoral success and we had a brief discussion on the close relationship between our two countries. I looked forward to welcoming him to Dublin for the next British-Irish Council summit which will take place in November.

See this speech in context