I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 to 37, inclusive, together.

I note the announcement of the resignation of the Uniter Kingdom Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, earlier this week, and acknowledge the very significant role he has played in resetting the Irish-British relationship, as well as relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union, during his time as Prime Minister. Since Prime Minister Starmer took office two years ago, he has worked with us to set a new direction and depth in the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom for the benefit of all our citizens, North-South and east-west. Our two Governments also took an important step forward in dealing with the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland, publishing a joint framework on addressing the legacy of the Troubles. As I said this week, Keir is a person of great ability, decency and honour and I want to wish him, his wife Victoria and their family the very best in the next chapter in their lives. I have no doubt that his successor as Prime Minister will wish to continue to deepen and strengthen the relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland, and we will continue to work in furtherance of that objective.

I hosted a United Kingdom-Ireland summit in Cork on 12 and 13 March. This was the second summit in a series initiated in Liverpool last year, at which Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I agreed a new comprehensive programme of strategic co-operation: United Kingdom-Ireland 2030. This year’s summit was an opportunity to review progress on United Kingdom-Ireland 2030 and to identify further areas for co-operation and work to be taken forward across government in collaboration with United Kingdom counterparts.

The summit in Cork had an extensive programme over two days, reflecting the significant nature of this bilateral relationship. The opening engagement was a round-table event attended by businesses and business representative groups to explore issues related to trade and investment and what Ireland and the United Kingdom can do together to further our already substantial economic relationship.

The Prime Minister and I also had the opportunity to meet representatives of the Ireland-UK Youth Forum, established in January 2026 in fulfilment of a commitment made at last year’s summit. The aim of the forum is to ensure that a new generation is involved in the strengthening of relations across these islands.

The summit programme also included a civic and cultural reception in Cork City Hall and a research- and innovation-focused visit to the Tyndall National Institute. Prime Minister Starmer and I also met over dinner on 12 March.

The summit plenary, held in Fota House, saw a wide-ranging discussion on achievements to date under United Kingdom-Ireland 2030, and on shared ambitions to see co-operation deepen and deliver to 2030 across a range of areas, including energy security and the transition to clean energy, protection of subsea infrastructure, cybersecurity, cultural exchange and competitiveness. We also discussed wider international issues, including the Middle East, the Gulf region and Ukraine.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

We agreed a joint statement reflecting the overall theme of the summit, Shared Prosperity, Shared Seas, Shared Ties, which set out achievements over the past year and looked ahead to future work together to the mutual benefit of both countries.

I was accompanied at the summit by the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Deputy Simon Harris; the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence, Deputy Helen McEntee; the Minister for Climate, Environment, Energy, and Transport, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Deputy Jim O’ Callaghan. Accompanying Prime Minister Starmer were Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero; Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade and Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

There are 17 Deputies and the best I can do is to give those here a minute each.

Now that we have the EU asylum and migration pact there needs to be particular recognition and consideration of the Border with the North and the common travel area. Has the Taoiseach discussed or considered how those asylum and migration systems will work North-South and east-west? Are there plans for improved co-operation?

Some 85% of asylum seekers who come into this State are coming from Britain through the North of Ireland. It is by far the biggest pathway for the movement of people in relation to the asylum process. We enjoy a common travel area with Britain but there have been significant problems over the past number of years. That is because there are three separate jurisdictions and not a lot of sharing of information. It means Ireland and Britain cannot control the movement of people and we do not have accurate records as to who is where. The Traditional Unionist Voice, TUV, has indicated recently there needs to be a hard border but that is simply impossible. There are 270 roads going north and south. I got information on Operation Sonnet last week. This is where Border checks are placed North and South. They happened on 30 days last year and there were 184 detections. It is window dressing, in reality. What we need is an Irish sea border for the movement of people. That has been accepted by the Taoiseach, Europe and Britain for the movement of goods as the only real way to be able to track the movement of goods.

Deputy Devlin is next.

It is possible to have an Irish sea border and still enjoy the common travel area-----

Deputy Devlin is on his feet.

-----just with the use of passports and driver's licences in relation to British and Irish citizens.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

Will the Taoiseach bring this up with the new British Administration, please?

Deputy Devlin.

I join the Taoiseach in his remarks about Prime Minister Starmer and all of the work he has done in rebuilding the relationship between Ireland and the UK, including through the UK-Ireland summits that have taken place in Liverpool and Cork.

I welcome the €377 million announced overnight for the shared island initiative, particularly the €193 million for the Dublin-Belfast-Derry line. That is real all-island progress and the Taoiseach deserves credit as well for starting that initiative. Much of this funding rightly is for large infrastructure but some of the most lasting reconciliation happens at community level. On that point, in my own constituency of Dún Laoghaire, local schools and sport links had been created between Shankill in Dún Laoghaire and Shankill in Belfast. That is practical community relations.

Will the Taoiseach consider whether the shared island fund can support more of these people-to-people connections, be it sporting or community organisations, on both sides of the Border, alongside its investment in roads and the rail network?

I associate myself with the Taoiseach's remarks about Prime Minister Starmer and I wish him and his family well.

One of the great things about our relationship with UK is the fact that we can still take advantage of the cross-border directive. However, constituents have been contacting me in recent weeks about significant delays in reimbursement under that directive. Some applicants are waiting five or six months despite indicative timelines of three months. In many cases, this is causing financial strain for patients who must pay upfront, including accumulating interest costs where loans are required. Will the Taoiseach intervene and see if clarity can be provided on whether these backlogs relate to staffing constraints and whether the additional interest that may be accrued will be reimbursed when processing times are exceeded? The cross-border directive is an excellent scheme and I would hate for it to lose public confidence due to operational issues.

I welcome the establishment of annual UK-Ireland summits. These have the potential to strengthen further bilateral relationships and intensify collaboration in areas such as trade, business, technology, investment, energy and environment. Alongside these annual summits, the Government must also ensure that the potential of the institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement across our jurisdictions are maximised to the best possible extent. As well as that important work, legacy issues must get priority attention in all Irish-British discussions. I refer again to the heinous crimes and loss of life inflicted on communities in my constituency, crimes for which nobody has been brought to justice. I instance again the murder of two young teenagers in my own home area when Geraldine O’Reilly and Patrick Stanley were killed in the bombing in Belturbet on 28 December 1972, and the dreadful loss of life in Monaghan and Dublin on 17 May 1974, when 34 innocent people, including an unborn child, were killed and 300 were seriously injured. Decade after decade has passed and families continue to grieve but there has been little if any progress on investigations into these murders. These must be addressed.

We have seen recently the Tánaiste's foray into united Ireland politics. I would like to think that would lead to a change in relation to Government policy. We all welcome that infrastructural deficits will be dealt with as a result of the shared island unit. We all want to see the likes of the Narrow Water Bridge and we also want to see whatever relationships can be built, but let us be clear, the one thing that we do need to see is movement towards constitutional change. This means preparation. It is sensible to do preparation. Sinn Féin wants to see a Green Paper and a citizens' assembly. It does not have to be citizens' assembly, it just needs to be any kind of forum to have those discussions on what this could look like. That would be the best means of dealing with the issue that we constantly talk about as regards reconciliation and whatever else. I would like to think that we would see movement on that.

Workers at Haldane Fisher in Newry, one of the biggest construction supply companies in the whole of Ireland, North and South, and in the UK, are on strike because Haldane Fisher, a very profitable company, is offering them pay increases that are significantly below the rate of inflation. The workers reckon that they have actually lost about 3% or 4% in real income terms over recent years. Haldane Fisher seems to be trying to break the strike and is refusing to negotiate with Unite the Union, which represents the workers.

I would say that one reason Keir Starmer is on his way out is because he failed working people on the cost-of-living crisis. That is something we should not do. It is important that a message be sent to Haldane Fisher. It should engage with these workers. These workers, and all workers, deserve pay increases that at least keep pace with inflation so that they are not losing income.

You would not know it from listening to the British commentariat, but a key factor in the downfall of Keir Starmer was his complicity in genocide and, in particular, that infamous clip where he says Israel does have the right to block water, block food and block electricity from Gaza while engaging in very blatant war crimes.

Another man entirely complicit in genocide is Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir, which is deeply integrated into the Israeli military structure and has played a crucial role in the slaughter of huge numbers of Palestinians. Peter Thiel is planning a sinister event in Ireland, organised by Dialog. It is a secretive event involving 200 people, with high-powered people and others with connections to genocide, including US Senator Ted Cruz, Secretary Scott Bessent and the NATO Europe commander. The topics are bizarre and include bringing back nuclear, navigating a third world war and battlefield technologies. Does the Taoiseach think the Powerscourt Hotel should be facilitating this event?

The Taoiseach talked about Keir Starmer being decent and resetting relationships. If ever there was a Prime Minister who did moral bankruptcy, it is Keir Starmer. Here is somebody who got in with a huge Labour majority and proceeded to lean in to racism, anti-migrant sentiment, transphobia and every single thing you can think of. He inflicted austerity on pensioners and the disabled. Let us talk about Palestine. Deputies here are meant to be supporting Palestine and yet they are congratulating Starmer and wishing him well. What about the Palestinian families whose water he thought it was fine to cut off? What about the spy flights over Gaza which Starmer endorsed? He shared intelligence with the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, and exported military goods worth $169 million. He has jailed young people for committing non-violent crimes. He put them on a par with ISIS and jailed them as terrorists. That is not decent. It is absolutely reprehensible. To support a genocide is reprehensible. Good riddance to him.

There is a significant opportunity to place research, innovation, higher education and collaboration at the centre of any future conversations we have with regard to any UK-Ireland summits. The UK’s return to Horizon Europe is an important and welcome development. Restoring those research links will benefit both our islands. It should also encourage us to think more ambitiously about what additional bilateral initiatives could achieve. I propose that between now and the next UK-Ireland summit we consider the establishment of a dedicated UK-Ireland innovation and research partnership to complement Horizon Europe and deepen collaboration between our universities, researchers and industries. Such a partnership could support joint research projects, research and mobility, doctoral training programmes and innovation-led collaborations in areas where both our countries share strategic interests, such as healthcare, climate action, food security, AI and advanced technologies. The academic relationship between Ireland and the UK took a hit during Brexit and this an opportunity for us all.

Plug-in solar represents a huge opportunity to enable renters and those who live in apartments or in heritage homes to access the benefits of solar power and to make savings on their bills. The UK is powering ahead with this and I hope Ireland will follow suit. I have raised this repeatedly with the Minister and I know he is open to this. I understand the ESB is looking at it. I ask that the Taoiseach actually put a timeline on it because the Department has been looking at this for two years and we really cannot have any delays. This really needs to be fast-tracked. The benefits are huge and we are obviously in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. I ask that the Taoiseach speed up progress on this.

Any upcoming legislation on clerical institutional abuse must have a cross-Border dimension. Catholic dioceses like Clogher span the Border and so do their school networks. We have evidence of clergy being moved between jurisdictions because of abuse concerns. Survivors of abuse in this State who sought refuge in the North found that the abuse continued there, and they are now dealing with both An Garda Síochána and the PSNI. Will the Taoiseach commit to engage with the Executive in Belfast, or is he already doing so, to strengthen co-operation between the two criminal justice systems so that abusers cannot use jurisdictional gaps to escape accountability?

Deputy O'Rourke asked about the EU asylum pact and the common travel area. The European Union asylum pact creates a structure that is positive, firm and robust. It has critics on the left and it has critics on the right. One side is saying we are not going far enough and the other is saying that we are going too far in terms of the returns aspect. We need to protect the common travel area because it is of enormous value to our citizens. Equally, as others have said, it creates challenges in terms of migration flows, particularly with people coming from the UK into Northern Ireland and over the Border. That is reality. The Minister for justice has been in touch with the home secretary. There was a call last week. We discussed this during the UK summit.

I do also believe, in terms of Operation Sonnet and other operations, that there is strengthened monitoring of traffic and people coming across, and that there is checking of public transport and other areas. There will never be a hard Border. There cannot be a hard Border. Deputy Tóibín also raised this issue and made a claim of 85%. I do not have a precise figure on that.

Nobody has the precise figure because of the movement of people.

Everybody needs an answer, so do not interrupt.

Deputy Tóibín then went on to give a precise figure. I will just leave it-----

I do not care.

The point is I think it is high. I am not arguing the figure, but the point I would make is there is a need for data on this. There are also less and less coming in through airports because of controls and so on that have been implemented over the last two to three years. There is an issue, but I am not clear. Could the Deputy flesh out his proposals and send me a paper on the Irish Sea border, and how that would operate and could be implemented? That is challenging as well and we need to be honest with people when ideas like that are floated. We do need more monitoring and controls so that we understand what is happening in these flows, as well as to deal with traffickers. I came across some terrible cases when I met Women's Aid in Northern Ireland recently in terms of women who were trafficked and horrifically abused in the course of the trafficking. Trafficking is a significant driver of migration also, and that does not get captured enough in the debate and the narrative.

I appreciate Deputy Devlin's reference to what is a very significant allocation from the shared island fund. It is more than just infrastructure. It is about people and the shared island initiative has put more research into systems North and South, such as health and education, than anything that has been done since the foundation of the State. I also direct that to Deputy Ó Murchú. Under the shared island initiative, there is facilitation for people-to-people supports. The shared home place programme is one potential area, and the Department of foreign affairs, under the shared island initiative, has a community-based funding scheme and programme. We have a dialogue strand which is bringing people together and then we have a research strand. The funding strand deals with research between universities, collaboration on cancer and issues of mutual concern to communities. If the Deputy has particular ideas, please talk to us. The connectivity that is happening now-----

Nine Deputies.

-----is particularly important. In that respect, I would make the point that in terms of the Narrow Water Bridge project, a lot of people were talking about it for a long time and nothing was done-----

True.

-----both in the North as well as the South, including members of Deputy Ó Murchú's party, but the point is that this Government has done it and we have put a scheme in place to enable that.

Deputy Moynihan.

Deputy Moynihan raised the cross-Border directive. We are going to do more work on that. We have identified that as an area generally under the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, and also in terms of North-South relationships. We are asking Departments about tax, treatment of workers and so on. Have I picked up the Deputy's issue correctly?

It was in reference to health procedures and reimbursements.

That is not fair to other Members. There is no interaction. The Taoiseach has eight Members to respond to.

I am going to get everyone done.

The Taoiseach has three minutes.

Anything is possible. In response to Deputy Smith, I want to say that legacy issues remain a very top priority, particularly with a new Prime Minister coming in. The legislation is in the UK and they need to implement it. We will pursue the Monaghan and Dublin bombings, although we are waiting for Operation Denton to perhaps bring more clarity to that.

In response to Deputy Ó Murchú, the amount of research that has been done under the shared island initiative is revealing. It is extensive and it is pointing up issues that we are trying to deal with and are dealing with. Where is the Deputy's Green Paper? There is nothing stopping Sinn Féin from producing a Green Paper. It is my view that Sinn Féin-----

He is the Taoiseach. He has the power of the State.

We are working. We are working flat out. I am substance all the way. I am not about slogans.

Do something on unity.

I am not saying someone else give me the solution.

I am saying the State.

Deputy, please.

Sorry, the Deputy is always saying that Sinn Féin's view is that "Everybody else must do the Green Paper except ourselves". That is the bottom line.

Deputy Boyd Barrett.

In any event-----

Deputy Boyd Barrett.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, again, I do not have the specifics on the strike. Industrial relations mechanisms are there to resolve issues between companies and workers and they should be utilised.

In response to the Deputy Murphy's comments on the British commentariat, to suggest that Prime Minister Starmer committed genocide, as Deputies Murphy and Coppinger did, is outrageous. He did not commit genocide. I do not know much about the event the Deputy is talking about. We are a democracy in this country. If people are meeting, so long as they are not doing any harm to anybody else-----

They are planning to do a lot of harm.

There are three Deputies, that is not fair.

There is a tendency on the far left and on the far right to say that no one else can meet but themselves. I have no truck with these people. I have no interest in whatever is going on there, but-----

Five deputies, Taoiseach.

-----citizens of different countries are entitled to come to Ireland. If they get visas, they are entitled to meet and organise. We have a very good democracy here. In the international transparency index, by all measures, we score very highly because of our approach to these issues. That is generally a positive, and we should not try to undermine that either.

I disagree with Deputy Coppinger's remarks on former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. I would not have agreed with all his views on Palestine and the Middle East, but I would not make the assertions and allegations that she has in respect of him.

In response to Deputy McGreehan's question on research and education, the idea of an innovation partnership with the UK is one that we will next pursue for the next summit. We endeavour to try to bring industry and businesses together more, but the idea of an academic collaboration, which has an enterprise dimension to it around new ideas, products and services, is definitely something we could and will pursue to see if can put flesh and bone on that in preparation for next year's summit. Again, the combination of universities, companies and State agencies, like Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, with their UK counterparts, is something that is very positive.

Taoiseach, please be quick.

We recently endowed a chair for history in Cambridge university to try to strengthen the academic partnership in the humanities between the UK and Ireland.

In response to Deputy Whitmore, I will actually go the Minister and ask him for a timeline. He is committed to plug-in solar. Deputy Heneghan has spoken about this quite a lot as well. The Minister is worried, and he is getting feedback that we have to make sure that domestic capacity exists and we do not unintended consequences like fires at particular houses and so on. He is concerned about that, and it is real concern. I will put it to him that we need a timeline, if he does not have one already.

In response to Deputy Heneghan, there is ongoing co-operation between the PSNI and the Garda, but also in terms of abuse North-South, we will work with the Executive on issues of that kind.