Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 15, inclusive, together.

I welcomed the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to Farmleigh House on 7 September. His visit to Dublin followed our meeting in Chequers on 17 July, when we resolved to have a reset of the Irish-British relationship. At Farmleigh, we agreed to take forward strategic co-operation across four pillars, which we set out in the joint statement we issued after our meeting. Those pillars are security, justice and global issues; climate, energy, technology and innovation; growth, trade and investment; and culture, education and people-to-people connections. We also agreed to initiate a series of annual leader-level summits with the first to take place in the spring of 2025.

At our meeting in Dublin, Prime Minister Starmer and I discussed our shared commitment as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and our ambition for greater opportunity, economic prosperity and reconciliation across these islands to include and benefit Northern Ireland. I raised the case of Pat Finucane and I welcome that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has since announced a public inquiry into that case. I pay tribute to Geraldine, John and the rest of the Finucane family, who have campaigned for this for very many years. Our discussions also focused on urgent global issues, including the situation in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.

I very much welcome the fact that we now have an interlocutor in Downing Street who very much uses the language of co-guarantor. I am very grateful to him for his fulsome engagement at a very early stage of his premiership. The Anglo-Irish reset is so important but there are some real and meaty issues on which progress needs to be made, particularly the issue of legacy. I welcome the fact that the British Government has committed to repealing the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act. This is good progress. However, I would like to see an intensity to the conversation about what can ultimately replace that. That has to be victim-centred, it has to involve parties in the North and the two governments, and it has to get to a place where we can genuinely try to provide truth, justice and accountability for all families.

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