![\"European](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5113842_10_articleinline_fb4c8552a4e445a482bd85dd463f11b8.jpg.jpg\" "\\"European")
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her College of Commissioners will gather in Cork on July 2, the first major event in Ireland’s EU presidency. Picture: Pascal Bastien\/AP<\/p>\nMiche\u00e1l Martin, along with other senior Government ministers, laid out the Government\u2019s priorities for the presidency, which starts on July 1.<\/p>\n
While the Taoiseach said that Ireland wants to advance online safety for minors during its six-month stint, he said he could \u201cnot guarantee\u201d that a ban for under-16s would be advanced between now and the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The European presidency shifts between each of the 27 EU member states every six months, meaning that each country assumes the presidency every 13.5 years.<\/p>\n
Ireland last held the EU presidency in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From July 1, European leaders and ministers will fly into Ireland for over 200 presidency meetings and events, starting on July 2 in Cork when Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her College of Commissioners will gather.<\/p>\n
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her College of Commissioners will gather in Cork on July 2, the first major event in Ireland’s EU presidency. Picture: Pascal Bastien\/AP<\/p>\n
An informal European Council meeting and a gathering of the European Political Community, which includes EU and non-EU countries, including the UK, will be held in November.<\/p>\n
The overall cost of the presidency will be up to \u20ac185m, excluding security.<\/p>\n
However, the Taoiseach dismissed the idea that domestic matters would be put on hold by the Government or the D\u00e1il during the six months.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we have to attend meetings and so on, but we envisage obviously the D\u00e1il continues on in line with the calendar that has been outlined for the D\u00e1il for the remainder of the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an annual organised framework governing D\u00e1il and Seanad activities. But it will mean a significant extra workload for our ministers, ministers of state, in particular, and for many of our public servants also.<\/p>\n
“We have to keep our focus on the domestic agenda too. It is very important for us that the programme for Government gets delivered. We have a budget. We decided that, and we had already, earlier consultations on the budget, because we know the budget will be delivered in October.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s priorities for the presidency will be \u201ccompetitiveness\u201d, \u201csecurity\u201d and \u201cvalues\u201d.<\/p>\n
Under competitiveness, there will be a focus on simplifying the regulatory framework, a \u201cmore integrated single market\u201d, an \u201cambitious trade policy agenda\u201d, strengthening the EU\u2019s capacities in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and energy transition.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said households and businesses across Europe are \u201cfaced with very high energy costs<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n The security pillar<\/a> will involve addressing challenges caused by Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine<\/a>, the conflicts in the Middle East<\/a> and in the Gulf<\/a>, and the \u201cnew forms of warfare present serious challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cActive support for Ukraine will be a defining priority for the Irish presidency.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We will work to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression, and support Ukraine in advancing its capacity and coordination with the EU and cooperation with partners,\u201d the presidency programme vows.<\/p>\n There will also be work on the White Paper on the Future of European Defence and the associated Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, and on defence procurement.<\/p>\n Under \u201cvalues\u201d, Ireland also again vows to continue to support Ukraine, and \u201cpromote active engagement in support of lasting peace and security in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n It will also address disinformation, online criminality, and child safety in digital environments. <\/p>\n When asked if there would be a ban on under-16s using social media as part of this, Mr Martin said that he could not guarantee there would be.<\/p>\n The Taoiseach also said that while no country is immune from threats, Ireland is not concerned about security during the presidency.<\/p>\n Louise Burne, Political Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miche\u00e1l Martin, along with other senior Government ministers, laid out the Government\u2019s priorities for the presidency, which starts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,1224,74289,61,60,1843,43,3589,58,2040],"class_list":["post-492873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-news","tag-disinformation","tag-eu-presidency","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-social-media","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}