Need for close Anglo-Irish ties has never been greater, Taoiseach tells British PM

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Jonathan McCambridge and Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The case for forging a close partnership between Ireland and the UK “has never been greater”, Micheál Martin has told Keir Starmer.

The two leaders have undertaken a number of engagements in Cork on the first evening of the UK-Ireland summit.

Starmer spent the earlier part of the day in Belfast before travelling to Cork for the summit, which follows an inaugural gathering in Liverpool last year.

At last year’s summit, Martin and Starmer committed themselves to a programme of co-operation between the two countries, called UK-Ireland 2030.

Delivering an address at a cultural event, the Taoiseach said there was a “renewed spirit of co-operation” between Ireland and the UK.

He said: “As we look to 2030, our task is clear – to deepen co-operation in the areas that matter most to our citizens, such as infrastructure delivery, especially housing; clean energy, climate action, research and innovation, the cost of living; readying our economies and our workers for the industries of the future,  protecting our critical infrastructure, including under our seas.

“In all of this, crucially, we are working together from a sense of shared values, whether that is in international co-operation, in Northern Ireland, or in shaping a fairer, more prosperous future for all across these islands.

“As we gather, we are conscious also that this is a changing, more uncertain, and more unsettled world.

“In that context, the case for an active, engaged and close partnership between our two countries has never been greater.”

The prime minister told the event that we are in an age of “dramatic uncertainty”.

He said: “The last just two weeks are a reminder of that uncertainty and I genuinely believe that co-operation in periods like this is more important now than it’s ever been to ensure that we can deliver the security and the growth for our people, and to tackle the thing that I know is in people’s minds, which is the cost of living.”