Tánaiste’s Remarks at the British Irish Association Conference

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Secretary of State, Dominic, members of the Committee, members of the Association, Ministers, colleagues, friends, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Is cúis áthais dom í a bheith ar ais anseo in Oxford libh inniú don chruinniú seo a bhíonn mar cheann de bhuaicphointe na bliana i gcónaí. Is fíor sin ach go háirithe an bhliain seo, agus muid i dtréimhse tábhachtach don chaidreamh idir Éirinn agus an Bhreatain.

It is a pleasure be with you once again at the annual conference of the British Irish Association. Thank you to Dominic and to Francesca for all of your work to make this weekend happen.

The British Irish Association has endured for more than 50 years. This is no accident.

The BIA persists because of the relevance of the issues it addresses, and the candour it facilitates. It provides a space for reflection, as well as for challenge – and both are equally necessary. It moves us out of the sometimes zero sum space of political discourse, and into the messier reality of compromise, of new ideas.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as many of you will know, I have been an active and enthusiastic participant at the British Irish Association for many years.

I’ve been here as a young backbench TD, as a Government Minister and as Leader of the Opposition. In recent years I’ve been here as Taoiseach and here as Tánaiste.

Between now and the next BIA Conference, we will have an election in Ireland, so who knows what role I will have when I return next year!

But this is a good moment I think to step back from the immediate issues and to reflect on where we have come from.

Last year on this stage, I described the Good Friday Agreement as an ‘amazing act of collective imagination’.

That bears repeating.

We are accustomed to and comfortable now talking about concepts like parity of esteem, and the principle of consent; about power sharing, and the legitimacy of divergent constitutional aspirations; about power being exercised with rigorous impartiality.

It is easy to forget that these were not always accepted core principles. All of these were once deeply contested, and often vigorously opposed.

The Good Friday Agreement was not a foregone conclusion; an end to violence, and agreement to pursue political aims by purely peaceful means, was not inevitable.

Those principles are now firmly embedded. They are the solid foundation on which Northern Ireland’s present is built; and they will continue to provide the foundation for building Northern Ireland’s future, whatever that future looks like.

We should never take them for granted; never forget that they were hard won.

All of that took courage and perseverance and partnership and doggedness and optimism and trust and political will and creativity; fundamentally, it took that act of collective imagination.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we are again at a moment in the British-Irish relationship where we can again make a leap of collective imagination.

It is no secret that, in recent years, the relationship has been tested; that we have come through what the relationship counsellors might call ‘a rough patch’.

Brexit shook the foundations of established relationships and ways of working. Its implementation and outworkings created new fault lines in a society that did not need more causes of division.

But come through it we did. We ultimately managed to navigate all of that complexity – and are still doing so – in a way that maintained the principles and the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement and that safeguarded the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.

But let’s be honest - this came at a cost.

The political and bureaucratic capital that we spent on managing Brexit left little space for a more forward-looking agenda.

Unilateral decisions by the previous British government on issues of core importance, most particularly on Legacy, meant that working in real partnership on the issue of reconciliation was not a realistic possibility.

And throughout the eight years since Brexit, the devolved institutions have been in abeyance for more time than they have been up and running.

We have lived through a period which, more often than not, was characterised by uncertainty and mistrust and stasis.

But I genuinely believe that we are in a different place now.

When the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Starmer met in Chequers last month, they committed to ‘re-building our unique partnership’. They will be meeting again later today in Dublin to discuss in more detail what that reset will look like, across the full range of potential areas of British-Irish cooperation.

But when it comes to Northern Ireland Hilary, the responsibility for translating that ambition into real, tangible progress, is ours; jointly ours.

It will be up to us to take that leap of collective imagination together.

And we do so at a time of opportunity for Northern Ireland.

The institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are restored, across all three strands. The Assembly and Executive are up and running. Power-sharing has been functioning for almost eight months.

I welcome the visible leadership that Michelle and Emma, the First and Deputy First Ministers, have shown. The Executive agreed on a Programme for Government yesterday, which I believe will go out for consultation on Monday.

None of this comes without challenges, of course. There is no easy way to strike the right balance between delivering for the people of Northern Ireland, and managing the serious constraints on fiscal space.

That is the stuff of day-to-day politics: balancing competing demands, improving and reforming systems, growing the capacity to deliver the public services that people in in the North of Ireland need, and rightly expect, from their politicians.

Responsibility for this lies first and foremost with the Executive; but both the Irish and British Governments can also play an essential and constructive role.

Let me focus on three issues that I believe need to be at the centre to how we re-imagine this partnership.

First, sustainable prosperity for all communities across these islands is undoubtedly a shared goal.

This goal is at the heart of the Shared Island Initiative that I established when I became Taoiseach; making a practical impact on people’s lives by leveraging the multiple opportunities that exist to work together, on concrete programmes and projects.

Through Shared Island, we have already commenced the largest programme of cross-border investment and cooperation ever undertaken by any Irish Government.

Many of you will be familiar with the flagship projects that we are currently funding and are committed to supporting in the future; the iconic Narrow Water Bridge, the Ulster Canal restoration and, I hope, sooner rather than later the A5 North West road corridor.

We are also engaging with all communities on what sharing this island looks like in practice, through our Shared Island dialogue series; and we’re developing, and making public, a strong evidence base on the practical challenges that we face together, through our North South Research Programme.

In all of this, we want to work as closely and as strategically as possible with the Executive, and with the UK Government, to maximise the impact of our investment. We all need to be as joined up as possible about where and how we invest, both separately and collectively.

Second, politics needs to work for people. Globally, democracy is under threat as never before. We have to demonstrate that democratic processes work; that they deliver meaningful change that people can see and feel in their own lives.

There is absolutely no room for complacency about that; not in Northern Ireland, not anywhere across these islands.

I’ve said before that I believe that the public in Northern Ireland would have zero tolerance for another cycle of suspension, disenfranchisement and political torpor.

In my view, that means having honest conversations about the practical functioning and management of the institutions. You can call that reform; you can call it political stability; you can call it whatever you want – what’s important is that it is tangible and impactful.

The Irish Government has already highlighted some of the issues that we would like to see addressed. They include questions about the ability of any single party to prevent the operation of the Assembly, as well as the Executive; about the use of the Petition of Concern; about advancing a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland; about making North/South and East/West cooperation more straight-forward and effective.

Others will have different questions. There will be different views on the relative importance of the various issues, and on the solutions.

That is as it should be. That is the essence of any meaningful conversation. And it goes without saying that this is not a conversation solely for the two governments. We can prompt reflection and put forward views, but it is the parties in Northern Ireland that have to be at the centre of this conversation. Civic voices also need to be heard.

Our collective aim should be to make the institutions more stable and effective, while retaining the Agreement’s foundational commitment to meaningful power-sharing, inclusiveness and the rights of all, in the diversity of their identities and traditions.

I have no illusions about how challenging this will be – but we need to make a start. In each of the last three years, Northern Ireland has faced elections – Assembly, local and Westminster. With no elections foreseen before mid-2027, this is the right moment.

Third – and even as we rightly focus on concrete improvements to peoples’ day to day lives - we cannot lose sight of the distinct, persistent challenges facing Northern Ireland 26 years after the Agreement.

For many, meaningful reconciliation remains elusive. What we have seen, over and over again in conflicts globally, is that the passage of time alone does not heal division and pain. Truth, justice, and accountability are not optional extras. They are the essential ballast in building a sustainable and stable future.

That means properly, and fully, addressing the legacy of violence in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement acknowledges this.

This is no easy task and there is no perfect solution.

But the starting point must be to establish a framework which allows victims, survivors and families both access to information, and avenues to justice.

Self-evidently, that framework must have the confidence of those that it serves.

The UK Legacy Act, as it stands, is not that framework.

Hilary, your early and sustained engagement on this issue has been very important and deeply appreciated. I warmly welcome your commitment to repeal and replace the Legacy Act.

The initial actions to which you have committed - including the repeal of the immunity provisions, and the reinstatement of the civil cases and inquests that were cut off on 1 May 2024 - are a crucial first step.

Beyond that first step must lie a robust, thorough, and ambitious process, ideally advanced in partnership between the two governments.

We are almost a decade on from the Stormont House Agreement, which marked the first time that there was sufficient consensus between most of the Northern Ireland parties and the Irish and UK Governments on the path forward on legacy. We recommitted to it as recently as 2020.

We do not have the benefit of that consensus today. There are legal processes still ongoing in Belfast and in Strasbourg. There is no immediate, simple fix.

But I am nevertheless convinced that it is possible to develop a shared vision of what is necessary, and an agreed path forward.

All of you here today are well aware that the Irish Government has a number of questions on the specifics of how we move forward.

One key element of that is the role and mandate of ICRIR. I believe that both the British and Irish Governments agree that substantive reform, focused on ensuring compliance with the ECHR and genuinely regaining public trust, is necessary.

The genesis of the Commission means that, understandably, many victims, survivors and families have deep reservations. Addressing such reservations will mean tackling fundamental questions in relation to the independence of the ICRIR, and its ability to carry out robust and thorough investigations.

That will require significant effort – and, I believe, root and branch reform. And both Hilary and I have said clearly and publicly that the views of the individuals and families directly affected have to be at the heart of this effort.

Let me also be clear that legacy issues as a whole are not solely the responsibility of the British government.

This is about collective effort. It is about my government also recognising and assuming its responsibilities.

You saw that in July when, with the full backing of the Cabinet, we signalled in the clearest terms our commitment to facilitating and supporting the work of the Omagh Inquiry, at its preliminary hearing.

I repeat that commitment today.

All of this matters deeply for Northern Ireland. But it also matters beyond Northern Ireland, and beyond these islands.

Later this morning, we have a panel discussion on democracy in Europe. Our continent – our world - is reeling from multiple crises.

The global multilateral order is under unprecedented strain.

International law – the rules and norms that have guided the international community since the end of the Second World War – is routinely violated. Fewer and fewer governments globally take seriously their duty to uphold and defend this order. We struggle to hold even the most egregious and heinous violators accountable for their actions.

This is why the clear commitment by this British government to the ECHR, and to international law more broadly, is so important. It sends a signal, and sets a standard, that should not be under-estimated.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as I come to the end of my remarks at this, the 2024 British Irish Association conference, I think it is worth reminding ourselves that the concepts of Irishness and Britishness have never been static.

I’ve observed that fact over many years, not least in my own family. Some of you may have heard me tell this story before, but my father, a very big influence on my life, was a strong trade unionist, a member of the Irish Army and a committed supporter of a United Ireland.

You are probably thinking ‘so far, so unsurprising’, for a leader of the Fianna Fáil party.

But perhaps less expected is the trajectory that the lives of some of my father’s brothers took – one joined the British Army, ended up as a POW in Singapore’s Changi Prison and became a supporter of the British Conservative party. Another also moved to the UK and became a supporter of the British Labour Party. And a third became a lifelong, diehard Communist!

Apart from providing conclusive evidence that an obsession with politics is clearly a flaw that has deep genetic roots – Hilary, you might have something to say about that too! – I see this as a wonderful example of the complexity and richness and diversity of our communities across these islands.

More recently, that has encompassed welcoming new communities to Northern Ireland from other parts of the world. Identity and belonging on our island is no longer just about Irishness and Britishness.

Last month, we saw a small, but vocal, minority try to open up new divisions. The shocking attacks on the homes, businesses, and places of worship of individuals, families and communities who have made Northern Ireland their home were, rightly, condemned by the vast majority across Northern Ireland.

The attacks were repugnant. But the response - thousands of people, from all backgrounds and traditions, coming together to protest that appalling behaviour - would give you heart and hope.

The vast majority of people in Northern Ireland know something about the importance of building an inclusive society with room for everyone, regardless of background, ethnicity, religion, or political beliefs. They’ve learned the hard way, and they’re not going back.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m not complacent about the challenges ahead. Those challenges are real, and there will undoubtedly be more in the future.

But what I am, is optimistic.

A lifetime in politics has taught me that political will can bring transformative change. It can make the impossible, possible. It can bring solutions to apparently intractable problems.

The British-Irish relationship is a partnership of real consequence, and real impact.

At times, it has been a partnership of transformation.

I hope, and there is every reason to believe that it can be that again; that it can be that now.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.