Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 19, inclusive, together. I met Prime Minister Cameron in London on 12 March, which was the first time in many years a Taoiseach visited Britain during St. Patrick's week. The key purpose of our meeting was to discuss the development of British-Irish relations. Following the meeting, we signed and published a joint statement setting out our aims and plans for the next decade. The statement recognises that the relationship between Ireland and Britain is now at a uniquely high level of co-operation. It covers a range of areas of proposed co-operation including on energy policy, trade and business, and boosting competitiveness and productivity in order to accelerate our respective recoveries and lead to growth and job creation. While business and official level links between Britain and Ireland are already strong, the Prime Minister and I also agreed on the merit of a joint study and evaluation of the economic relationship. I intend that the next decade will see an intensive programme of work aimed at reinforcing the British-Irish relationship.

Our joint statement reaffirms the support of both Governments for the full implementation of the Good Friday and related agreements and to seeing Northern Ireland move from peace to reconciliation and prosperity. We are determined to ensure that the people of Northern Ireland are never again blighted by violent conflict. We remain committed co-guarantors of the peace process.

In addition to our joint statement, we discussed a range of other issues over the course of our meeting, including the economy and Europe. On Europe, we are both firm supporters of the Single Market and will continue to consult each other on key EU policy issues. We discussed the most recent European Council and we strongly agree that growth and jobs should remain at the centre of the EU's agenda. We briefly discussed the financial transaction tax idea and I repeated my view that it could only work if introduced on an across-the-board basis internationally. Otherwise, it would create serious competitive distortions.

I updated the Prime Minister on the stability treaty and on the forthcoming referendum. I explained our position regarding our efforts to reduce the costs to the State as a result of promissory notes. I was pleased by his comments in support of our continuing efforts in pursuit of our economic recovery.

During our meeting, I raised the Pat Finucane case again, as I had also done at our previous meeting. We have a different opinion to that of the British Government and I support the Finucane family's quest for a full inquiry. The Finucane family has been granted leave for a judicial review by the High Court in Belfast, which is due to take place this month. We will see what emerges from that.

In addition to a discussion on the Finucane case, I also raised the sensitive and difficult cases of the Ballymurphy families and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings with the Prime Minister.

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