The speech made by Kirsty McNeill, the Foreign Office Minister, in Dublin on 8 October 2026.
Thank you Orlaigh and the IIEA for hosting us today.
I’d also like to thank the Irish Government, and the European Union, for inviting me to join today’s meeting of development ministers – the first time the UK has sat around that table since Brexit.
Before coming here, I met Neale Richmond and we reflected on the strength of the relationship between the UK and Ireland.
As nearest neighbours, we share common interests. But more importantly, we share common values – a belief in democracy, multilateralism, the rule of law, and standing up for those most in need.
Those values matter more than ever, because we are living through a period of profound uncertainty.
Conflict is driving humanitarian crises across the world. In Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, too many places, the level of suffering is immense.
If you switch on the news today, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world is becoming a darker and darker place.
But being here in Ireland is a reminder that darker days need not lie ahead.
This country has a long history of refusing to accept that cruelty is inevitable.
I travelled here today from Scotland. More than thirteen hundred years ago, the Abbot of Iona made the same journey for a gathering he had convened on this island to establish the Cáin Adomnáin – the Law of the Innocents.
Often described as Europe’s first human rights treaty, it sought to protect women, children and other non-combatants from violence. It reflected a shared belief that even in war there are rules, and that those not involved should be protected.
Of course, warfare has changed enormously since then.
Today’s conflicts are often more urban, more prolonged, and more complex.
Yet some things have remained the same. Women and children still too often bear the brunt. Human beings still find new ways to turn all our ingenuity into new ways to inflict harm on one another.
And yet it is also the case that we have never lost the capacity to come together and agree norms and rules to protect life.
Right from the days of the Law of the Innocents to the Geneva Conventions, the Mine Ban Treaty to the Arms Trade Treaty – each generation has tried to draw a line and say there are limits we will not cross.
That is a tradition we must all hold on to.
Because development, humanitarian action and conflict prevention all begin with the belief that every human life should be cherished.
And that brings me to my second point: we don’t just share a common humanity – we also share common challenges to that humanity.
Whether it is climate change, access to decent work, whether food is affordable and accessible – the issues facing the young people in the Global South and the Global North differ in degree and not nature.
That’s why I am determined that in how I do my job we will think of development not as something that happens ‘over there’ and not ‘over here’. But as the process of ensuring that more and more of us are safe and have enough – enough to live well, and with dignity.
That applies in Europe just as much as it does in Africa, Asia or anywhere else.
It’s one reason I was struck by what Taoiseach Micheál Martin said during a UN General Assembly event we were both at last month – when he talked about Ireland’s long-standing commitment to tackling hunger and malnutrition, rooted in its values and experience.
It reflected an understanding that solidarity begins by recognising ourselves in the experience of others.
That also helps explain why both Ireland and the UK continue to believe so strongly in international development – but also in doing development differently.
For the UK, that means adopting a modern approach to development grounded in investment, stronger systems and local leadership – and rooted in shared solidarity and mutual interest.
I’ll be thinking a lot about this as we prepare for the UK’s G20 Presidency next year.
And that same spirit of shared solidarity brings me to the future of Europe’s role in the world – and the UK’s place within it.
The UK Government is committed to building a closer, more ambitious relationship with our European partners because as the Prime Minister said at the Labour Party Conference, Brexit has done more harm than good.
So we are committed to reconnecting with our friends, allies and closest neighbours. My presence around the table of EU development ministers today is part of that.
As I said, this is the first time the UK has been invited to this format since we left the EU, and we want to build on the discussions today and do so quickly.
We’ve also restarted formal development discussions with the European Commission, our teams in Brussels are working together more closely, and we’re looking forward to the second UK-EU Summit later this year.
These are all important steps. But they are part of something bigger. A belief in solidarity across the continent we each call home and then onwards, ties of solidarity that tie the peoples of this continent to others around the world.
There is so much that the UK and EU agree on. Not least our resolve to tackle poverty and injustice, respond to humanitarian crises, reform the international system, and build more resilient communities.
At a moment when some are stepping back from international cooperation, we are stepping forward.
That is why I am pleased to be in Dublin today. And that is why today is just the start.
