{"id":542316,"date":"2026-07-10T06:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542316\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:41:08","slug":"taoiseach-to-attend-british-irish-council-in-guernsey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542316\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach to attend British-Irish Council in Guernsey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee are in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, for a summit meeting of the British-Irish Council.<\/p>\n

The council is the institution that brings together the eight governments that operate in Britain and Ireland and offshore islands.<\/p>\n

This year’s summit will include discussions on early years systems to support children and families, including consideration of age-appropriate digital access and wellbeing.<\/p>\n

Leaders will also discuss wider political developments, including international affairs.<\/p>\n

The summit will be hosted by the Government of Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, and attended by representatives of the governments of all eight member administrations.<\/p>\n

It is the 45th summit meeting of the council, which was set up by the Good Friday Agreement to improve east-west government links.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the summit, the Taoiseach said: “The British-Irish Council offers an opportunity to meet with our nearest neighbours to exchange ideas and discuss issues that affect us all, a core component of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n

“This summit\u2019s theme of supporting healthy and happy childhoods, and early years is a priority for my Government.<\/p>\n

“I look forward to hearing the insights and learnings from others while in Guernsey.”<\/p>\n

\"Minister
\nHelen McEntee said ‘protecting children online will be one of my key priorities at this summit’<\/p>\n

Mr Martin added that digital technologies “in particular are becoming an increasingly larger part of children\u2019s lives, and it is essential we provide evidence-informed guidance to parents and educators”.<\/p>\n

The British government announced last month that it will legislate to restrict social media access for those under 16 years old following similar moves in some other countries.<\/p>\n

Minster McEntee said: “Protecting children online will be one of my key priorities at this summit.<\/p>\n

“As digital technologies become an ever-greater part of children\u2019s lives, we must work together to ensure they have access to age-appropriate, safe and empowering digital experiences that support their learning, development and wellbeing.”<\/p>\n

She added that through “closer collaboration, shared expertise and coordinated action, we can develop effective solutions that better protect children across these islands”.<\/p>\n

The British government is expected to be represented by Chief Secretary to the Prime Minster and Minster for Intergovernmental Relations Darren Jones.<\/p>\n

The British-Irish Council is an intergovernmental organisation established in 1998 under strand three of the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n

It comprises of the Government and the UK government, along with the devolved administrations of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee are in Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-542316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542316","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=542316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}