Statement on the British-Irish Council Summit

The First Minister: Presiding Officer, with your permission, I will make a statement on the British-Irish Council summit that was held last Friday at the Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans. I chaired the meeting and senior figures from each Government that is represented on the council were present, including Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach. This was the first international diplomatic event of its kind in Wales since the European summit that was held in Cardiff in the summer of 1998.

The summit was held at a key moment for the council. The council has continued working during the suspension of devolved Government in Northern Ireland. I hope that the devolved administration will be restored before long, following last week’s difficult elections, and that that will give new impetus to the council’s work. I am sure that we all wish Paul Murphy well in his negotiations. However, that should not cause us to lose sight of the main purpose of the council, which is to allow its members to collaborate and share best practice on the wide range of issues and interests that they have in common.

Since last year, we have had lead responsibility within the council on minority, indigenous and lesser-used languages. A surprisingly wide range of such languages are spoken within the islands of Britain and Ireland, ranging from those with hundreds of thousands of speakers, such as Welsh and Irish, to much scarcer tongues, such as Jèrriais, on the isle of Jersey, and Manx. All council members recognise the need to support and maintain such languages, and the contribution that indigenous languages make to heritage, cultural diversity, education and tourism. While there is widespread recognition of the expertise that we have in Wales on these issues, we can and will learn a lot from each other in pursuing those goals.


With the enlargement of the European Union to 25 member states next May—an increase of 10 states—there will be a sharp expansion in the number of small countries that have their own languages, which are essential to their own heritage, but which use English for international business, information and communications technology and much of higher education on the scientific and engineering side. The Celtic countries of the British Isles will be similar to many of the Baltic countries, to Cyprus and Malta, the Nordic countries and some of the smaller central-European new member states. While noting that much of the work in terms of supporting and promoting indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages is specific to the individual circumstances of each council member administration, the council agreed on a number of areas where enhanced co-operation at governmental level would be beneficial. Recognising the crucial importance of intergenerational language transmission to the future health and viability of indigenous languages, the council agreed to jointly consider the outcomes of research in this area and to carry out an assessment of structures that support indigenous-language learning in adult education in each of the council administrations.

The British-Irish Council also noted the potential of ICT developments to facilitate the use, and raise the visibility, of indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages. Members agreed to work together on identifying priorities for their respective indigenous languages in relation to the development of ICT. The collection and analysis of data relating to language ability and use is an important element of work in this area in council member administrations. The council agreed that members with an interest in this area should consider the potential benefits of co-operating on the development of language-use surveys. Members also agreed to share information on their experiences of the relationship between planning policy and linguistic considerations.

During the summit, the council also reviewed its wider programme of work and discussed measures that would enable it to build on the work done to date and to communicate more effectively. Northern Ireland and Guernsey are scheduled to host council summits in 2004. Further details are contained in the publication that is issued by the British-Irish Council secretariat; I will ensure that that is available on the Assembly intranet. There is more information on the council’s work on its website, www.british-irishcouncil.org.

Finally, I would like to thank the staff of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, South Wales Police and my officials for their contribution to making this event a success in Wales.