Briefing Note on Re-setting Ireland/UK Relations to Enhance Prosperity and Embed Peace

Briefing note by Senior Research Associate Michael D’Arcy.

The re-set currently underway between the British and Irish Governments has recommitted to “the importance of their responsibilities as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement”. Effectively implementing this commitment will require an investment of sufficient energy, effort, and attention to agree and implement an ambitious joint road map to 2030 and beyond designed to embed our current shared peace and prosperity. The positive personal relationship already in place between the Taoiseach Simon Harris and Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a good start.

Four areas have been selected for cooperation that “both governments believe represent the breadth and depth of shared values and interests between the UK and Ireland”: security, justice and global Issues; climate, energy, technology and innovation; growth, trade and investment; culture, education and people to people connections. Delivering tangible results will include political choices with long term consequences for these islands.

Recent history has demonstrated the importance of political agreements that provide policy and regulatory certainty to underpin cross border trade and business on and between these islands. Therefore the scope of work being jointly undertaken by both governments should include relevant research, careful policy design and consultation with key stakeholders. Shared overarching issues to be considered in addition to East/West economic and social interaction include volatile and threatening externalities, continuing population growth, and enhancing the conditions for North/South cooperation and an all-island economy.

The positive personal relationships between Taoiseach and Prime Minister Keir Starmer can now mobilise their governments to commit to these tasks with scale and ambition. By doing so they will underpin peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland, and so also on the island of Ireland – a process the UK’s wider re-set of relationships with the European Union will benefit from, along with its already improved political interaction with the US.

This article considers some of the opportunities and challenges for this shared task.

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