THE TAOISEACH has welcomed moves to establish a standing secretariat for the British-Irish Council, the intergovernmental body set up 10 years ago under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
After a summit meeting of the council in Cardiff yesterday, Brian Cowen told a news conference chaired by Welsh first minister Rhodri Morgan that economic issues had been the main item on the agenda.
“We discussed key issues of the economic downturn, with all the huge challenges that it brings in the short term and indeed over future years,” Mr Cowen said.
The Taoiseach, who was accompanied by Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív, continued: “We look forward, at our next meeting, to seeing the establishment of the standing secretariat which will enable us to build on the strengths and resources that we have already identified.”
Speaking in Irish, Mr Cowen also said there was much work to do in regard to the use of languages such as Irish, Welsh and Scots Gaelic and he praised the progress that the devolved administration in Cardiff had made in promoting the Welsh language.
“Tá dea-shampla a thaispeáint againn ag an Bhreatain Bheag.”
Highlighting the Stormont administration’s hope that the secretariat would be established in Northern Ireland, First Minister Peter Robinson said: “I welcome very much the fact that we are now making progress in terms of determining where the standing secretariat will be based. This has for a long period of time been a desire of the Northern Ireland administration.
“I welcome the urgency that Rhodri and others put into that area of activity. There are four administrations who are offering themselves to host the standing secretariat: Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.
The North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said it was a first visit to Wales both for himself and Mr Robinson.
“I’m very enthusiastic about the way in which the council has progressed,” Mr McGuinness added, “the friendships that we’ve made with Wales and with Scotland, with the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, the British government representatives.”
Secretary of State for Wales Paul Murphy said discussion on the economy had shown “how important it is that we were able to share very practical, very real examples of schemes and initiatives which are going to help businesses and families throughout these islands in a very special way”.
Mr Morgan said: “The BIC has . . . proved its value during good times, but now we move on into much choppier waters and the council has to prove itself all over again as a vehicle to assist us in dealing with much tougher times . . .
“The agenda was changed so as to enable us all to have an exchange about how are we dealing with the recession in the particular way it impacts on the eight member-administrations represented on the BIC.
“Every one of us has a slightly different take on it, every one of us has slightly different powers and abilities to pull different levers and see different things happening,” Mr Morgan said.
Foreign military forces should be forbidden from coming to Ireland to offer graveside honours to fallen Irish comrades, Sinn Féin delegates have agreed.
Last November, British Royal Marines travelled to Westport, Co Mayo, to carry the coffin of Robert McKibben, who was one of four marines killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Six marines carried his coffin through Westport, while 60 others, many in uniform, attended the funeral, along with Mayo FCA members, gardaí and local dignitaries.