Meeting of the British-Irish Council, Isle of Man, 19-20 May

The latest meeting of the British-Irish Council took place in the Isle of Man on 19-20 May.  The Minister for Health and Social Services and I attended on Wales’ behalf.  The UK and Irish Governments, the Scottish Executive and the three island administrations were all represented.  Peter Hain attended as a member of the UK delegation, representing the interests of Northern Ireland.

The meeting began with an update from the Irish and British Governments on the peace process in Northern Ireland.  It was noted that serious difficulties had been encountered since the last meeting of the Council in November, and that the optimism expressed on that occasion had proved misplaced; but now that the UK General Election had been held, there had been renewed engagement with the political parties in Northern Ireland.  It remained to be seen what progress could be made.  The Council expressed its strong support for the work that both Governments had committed themselves to, and reaffirmed its endorsement of the Good Friday agreement as the framework for progress in the peace process.

The Council next noted the programme of work being undertaken by various working groups operating under its auspices.  I drew attention to the renewed discussions, now being led on our behalf by the Welsh Language Board, in the Group on Minority and Indigenous Languages.  Wales also remains an active participant in all the other Working Groups.  These Groups are supported by the BIC secretariat, which remains an ad-hoc group of officials from the UK and Irish Governments.  There have been suggestions that the Secretariat should be reconstituted on a permanent and more broadly-based way.  I indicated that if that were to happen, we would be happy for Wales to be the location for the Secretariat, but no early decision on this matter is likely.

The main agenda item was discussion of a Working Group report on Telemedicine.  All delegations recognised the importance of harnessing ICT to the provision of Health and Social Care.  Wales has a particularly good story to tell in this area, and our officials were closely involved in the preparation of the report. It is all too easy to regard the technological developments as an end in itself, whereas Brian Gibbons was at pains to relate the developments to improving the quality of the patient experience; for us (as for Scotland), one of the enormous advantages of telemedicine is for people in more remote or rural communities to gain access to specialist services without having to travel to specialist centres.  This citizen-focussed approach to the provision of Health and Social Care very much accords with the spirit of the Making the Connections programme.  The Council endorsed the paper on Telemedicine, and asked for further work to be taken forward.

The text of the final communique from the meeting is attached.  The next meeting of the Council will be in the spring of 2006.