{"id":562392,"date":"2026-07-22T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562392\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:08:18","slug":"ireland-ready-to-support-closer-uk-eu-ties-under-burnham-says-tanaiste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562392\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland \u2018ready to support\u2019 closer UK-EU ties under Burnham, says T\u00e1naiste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland remains \u201cready to support\u201d the UK in developing closer ties with the EU under Andy Burnham\u2019s premiership, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has said.<\/p>\n

Harris said the relationship between Ireland and its closest neighbour was \u201cprobably the best place it\u2019s been in since Brexit, if not even better\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin had his first phone call with Mr Burnham, where they discussed legacy issues and Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Ireland\u2019s presidency of the EU and EU-UK relations.<\/p>\n

\"IrishTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin spoke with Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House, Mr Martin said the pair had had a \u201cvery warm conversation\u201d in their first engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed a wide range of issues, we look forward to an early meeting, and we discussed the relationships we\u2019ve got in Ireland, particularly in terms of the annual summits that we now hold that we continue, and also focusing on issues like energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIn terms of Northern Ireland\u2019s legacy, we did discuss that. I think it\u2019s a historic opportunity to get the Legacy done, and I made those points to Andy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also then the broader international situation and the European Union, United Kingdom relationship in particular, which I think is important for Europe, is important for the United Kingdom and Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrimeTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said he and Prime Minister Andy Burnham, centre, had had a \u2018very warm conversation\u2019 in their first engagement (Eddie Mulholland\/Daily Telegraph\/PA)<\/p>\n

Mr Harris said Mr Burnham \u201cknows Ireland well, and Ireland knows him well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an experienced politician who made a point when he was mayor, along with the mayor of Liverpool, of visiting here and really building and strengthening links, both with national government and with local government, so I wish Andy Burnham well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly hope and expect that we will see a continuation of the major reset that took place in UK-Ireland relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Prime Minister Starmer came to office, I spoke to him on his first day in office as Taoiseach; we had a conversation about immediately resetting, and we worked really hard to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He welcomed Mr Martin\u2019s call with Mr Burnham that took place on Tuesday, and said there were \u201cimportant issues that we\u2019ve got to work really closely on together\u201d.<\/p>\n

A lot of good work has been done to get the relationship to probably the best place it’s been in since Brexit, if not even better than before that, and we\u2019ve just got to keep that momentum going<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Simon Harris says budget tax package must deliver for \u2018working people\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA closer relationship for the UK with the EU is in the UK\u2019s interest, in my humble opinion, it\u2019s in the EU\u2019s interest, and it\u2019s in Ireland\u2019s interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain ready to support there. The very good work that\u2019s been done on Legacy is important too. I know Minister McEntee is working on that, so there\u2019s a lot of good work under way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cA lot of good work has been done to get the relationship to probably the best place it\u2019s been in since Brexit, if not even better than before that, and we\u2019ve just got to keep that momentum going as we head towards the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in the not-too-distant future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland remains \u201cready to support\u201d the UK in developing closer ties with the EU under Andy Burnham\u2019s premiership,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-562392","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\/562392","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=562392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}