Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the strength of the British/Irish relationship.

The Foreign Secretary spoke to the Tánaiste Micheál Martin on 5 July when he set out how the government was looking forward to resetting the bilateral relationship with Ireland. He looks forward to visiting Dublin in the near future, as do I, which I made clear to my Irish counterpart - Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill - when we spoke on 2 September. The Prime Minister hosted the Taoiseach at Chequers in July where they agreed to a UK-Ireland Summit in early 2025; they met again in Dublin on 7 September to agree priorities for the Summit. Ireland is the UK's nearest neighbour and sixth largest trading partner, and we are committed to ensuring UK/Ireland relations continue to go from strength to strength.