3. Statement by the First Minister: British-Irish Council Summit Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 23 November 2021.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 2:59, 23 November 2021

(Translated)

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. In your written statement in response to the previous summit, I think you mentioned that the UK Prime Minister had not attended, and he didn't attend again. In fact, I don't think he's ever attended, and I don't think Theresa May attended and neither did David Cameron. You have to go back to Gordon Brown in 2007, I think. I know this because I was reading—. He attended in Belfast at that time and I know this because it's included in Ieuan Wyn Jones's new book, and he was representing the Welsh Government at that summit whilst Rhodri Morgan was recovering from illness. And Gordon Brown only turned up because Ian Paisley and Micheál Martin had threatened to cancel the whole thing if he hadn't done so. So, why do you think that UK Prime Ministers are so unwilling to attend the summit? Isn't it important? Whilst every other Government, as a rule, sends their First Ministers, and in this case the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, doesn't it at least show some disrespect, if truth be told, to the other Governments that the UK Government isn't represented in the same way?

Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, has put forward some ideas in relation to the council and strengthening the council. I'm wondering whether he shares some of the ideas you have mentioned now, your ideas on reforming the relationship with the parliamentary assembly. There is a different constitutional status to the various members of the council, isn't there? You have the Republic, of course, as an independent nation; you have Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland with their own devolved parliaments; and then you have the Crown dependencies too, which have a status somewhere in between—quite interestingly, outwith the European Union but within the customs union, outside the UK but espousing British identity. That's interesting in the context of the discussions that will come up through the constitutional commission. I wonder whether you had an opportunity during the conversations at the periphery, which can be the most interesting during these sessions, to discuss the constitutional commission and the lessons that can be learned from that range of constitutional models that might be relevant to us.

Finally, minority languages was one of the themes discussed. Was there any discussion at all on the pledge by the UK Government to introduce legislation on the Irish language in Northern Ireland following the political crisis in Stormont some years ago? There has been a pledge to legislate before the end of the year, but there are only a few weeks remaining of this year. So, was there anything to report in terms of progress to that end?