UK to benefit from £937m Irish investment, says Starmer

More than £900m of new Irish investment into the UK has been announced ahead of the UK-Ireland summit.

The £937m investment will create about 850 new jobs, according to a statement from the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer.

This includes an energy connector project between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which the UK government said will help bring down electricity costs on both sides of the border.

A separate energy connector will connect Wales and Ireland and provide enough power for 570,000 homes.

"The UK's close friendship with Ireland is going from strength to strength and I am pleased that we are going further in working together on growth, energy, security and more," the prime minister said.

"This new Irish investment coming into the UK is one part of a much bigger picture of our flourishing cultural, commercial and security ties."

London, Doncaster, South Wales and Scotland are among the areas set to benefit from the investment.

Gas Networks Ireland is to invest £170m, Amach, the AI (artificial intelligence) and cloud-computing company to the aviation sector, is to invest £45m and create 150 jobs and Focus Capital Partners is to invest £3m.

Ayrton Group, based in Cork, will invest more than £1m in its UK arm to boost "AI-empowered services" and double its London team.

On Thursday evening, Sir Keir was greeted by Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin at Cork Airport in the Republic of Ireland ahead of the UK-Ireland summit on Friday.

Sir Keir later said it was an "age of dramatic uncertainty".

He said the last two weeks were a reminder of this and people were worried about what impact the war in Iran would have on household budgets.

The prime minister spoke about the UK and Ireland working together to "deliver the best for our people" with co-operation being "more important now than it has ever been".

Martin welcomed the prime minister to a business round table in Cork and said the UK and Ireland had a "very strong bilateral relationship".

"One of the most important trading relationships and growing all of the time," he added.

Sir Keir said it was "really fantastic" to be in Cork following a "very successful UK-Ireland summit" in Liverpool last year.

"I think it reflected the joint determination we have to reset relationships and we very much look forward to the summit tomorrow," he said.

The UK-Ireland summit was set up to maintain and develop Anglo-Irish relations post-Brexit.

The meeting is set to be attended by UK and Irish government ministers.

Earlier, Sir Keir vowed to help people in Northern Ireland struggling with the cost of living.

The First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, had challenged the prime minister to provide support during a meeting on Thursday morning.

Leaders from across Northern Ireland's political parties met Sir Keir ahead of the UK-Ireland summit.

Speaking afterwards, during a visit to a women's centre near Belfast, Sir Keir said discussions with politicians focused on making money, set aside in the Autumn Budget to help with electricity costs, available "as quickly as possible".

He said he had also asked the Treasury minister to talk to the Northern Ireland Executive about the oil-based heating in homes and "how we can coordinate our response to this" due to the increase in prices since the US attack on Iran.

Almost two-thirds of homes (62.5%) in Northern Ireland use oil for heating, the highest proportion among UK nations.

Industry data suggests prices have more than doubled since the US-Israel war with Iran began.

The prime minister also said he recognised a large majority of households in Northern Ireland rely on heating oil and he was aware that some people were getting "ripped off" due to unfair prices.

"I am acutely aware that the cost of living is the single most important issue probably for all of you and for many, many people across Northern Ireland and that's the thing that I focus on," he added.

Sir Keir was also asked about his appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, despite newly-released documents showing his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking in Belfast, Sir Keir reiterated he made a mistake in Lord Mandleson's appointment, and apologised to Epstein's victims.

Meanwhile, O'Neill said the prime minister had billed his visit as one to talk about the cost of living.

"Every family or individual we have spoken to are really struggling and now what is happening internationally is having a real life impact on their day-to-day lives," she said.

"I certainly drove home the message to him today that the approach that they have taken in London isn't the same here. Stop applying the same lens to our local scenario."

Sinn Féin described their meeting as being forthright and leader Mary Lou McDonald said they covered a range of issues.

"We put it directly to Keir Starmer that Britain continues to arm Israel and that in itself is an absolute outrage," she said.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson said it struck "a strange chord" that political leaders in Northern Ireland would call on Sir Keir to act on high energy prices when there was funding "waiting to be dispensed".

"He was as aghast as I was to discover that £81m is sitting there waiting to be dispensed to assist consumers in Northern Ireland," Robinson said.

All households in Northern Ireland are set to get a £30 per year reduction in electricity bills as part of the UK government scheme.

The Department for the Economy said introducing the £81m scheme requires new legislation so it may not be operating until later this year or next year.

"This commitment was made at the turn of the year, four months ago and we have seen nothing," Robinson said.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) said they also spoke to Sir Keir about oil prices but said they made it clear they believe the way it has been handled by the executive illustrates "the dysfunction we are trying to fix".

"This isn't what people need when they are anxious about heat and other potential shocks," SDLP leader Claire Hanna said.

Alliance leader Naomi Long said their meeting with Sir Keir was short but packed as they wanted to address a number of key issues.

She said among them was home heating oil and "the instability that people are facing in terms of pricing and the general cost of living crisis".

"What we need to do is to both focus on the transition to better fuel opportunities - and they are out there - and we need to invest in that, but we also need some sort of short-term intervention," she said.

"I think the prime minister was certainly very open to the issues that we raised and willing to engage further with us on those."

Heating oil prices were also raised by UUP leader Jon Burrows, as well as the potential for defence spending investment in Northern Ireland to create jobs.

"We also dealt with legacy and that was a very frank conversation," Burrows added.