Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, together.

I attended the 41st British-Irish Council summit, hosted by the Isle of Man, on 21 June. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, represented the Government at the summit dinner the night before. The council welcomed the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Executive and the North-South Ministerial Council and the return to the British-Irish Council of the First and deputy First Ministers. It is important and positive that all three strands of the Good Friday Agreement are now fully operational again.

I updated the council on recent EU and international engagements. The theme of this summit was unlocking the economic and social opportunities of renewables across these islands. I detailed the Government's ambitions for offshore wind energy included in the programme for Government and our industrial strategy for offshore wind. We discussed the importance of co-operation and shared learning between our administrations, such as the memorandum of understanding on co-operation in the energy transition, offshore renewables and electricity interconnection, signed by Ireland and the UK in September 2023.

On the margins of the summit, I held a bilateral meeting with the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney. We discussed the strong relationship that has long existed between Ireland and Scotland, and the potential of a new co-operation framework for the post-2025 period. The Scottish Government will host the next British-Irish Council summit in Edinburgh in December.

See this speech in context