The Development of the Priorities and Policy Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026

From 1 July to 31 December 2026, Ireland will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). As part of the development of Ireland’s Presidency priorities and policy programme, the Government sought the views of domestic stakeholders and the Irish public.

Through the public consultation, the Government sought to gather observations, suggestions, and reflections on how Ireland can best fulfil its Presidency role; ensure the Presidency policy programme is informed by diverse perspectives from across Irish society; and identify EU-wide issues, themes, and policy areas that should be given particular attention during Ireland’s Presidency.

• Tánaiste Simon Harris
• Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne
• An tAire Stáit do Ghnóthaí Eorpacha Thomas Byrne

The consultation launched on 05 November 2025 and the deadline for receipt of written submissions was 12 December 2025. We would like to thank everyone for their views and input into the consultation process. If you have any questions, please send your query to EUPresidency2026Consultations@dfa.ie.

We would like to draw your attention to our Data Privacy Notice, which explains how and when we collect personal data, why we do so, and how we treat this information. It also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights. Anonymised excerpts from individual submissions may be included in internal and published reports. While the Department will carefully consider all comments and suggestions received, it does not intend to respond to individual submissions.

Please note that all responses received to this consultation are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI), the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007-2014, and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Feedback received from submissions is currently being considered as part of the development of Ireland’s Presidency priorities and policy programme. Additionally, all submissions were made available to all Government department Presidency teams to support departments in their sector specific Presidency planning and preparations.

From 1 July to 31 December 2026, Ireland will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). As part of the development of Ireland’s Presidency priorities and policy programme, the Government sought the views of domestic stakeholders and the Irish public.

Through the public consultation, the Government sought to gather observations, suggestions, and reflections on how Ireland can best fulfil its Presidency role; ensure the Presidency policy programme is informed by diverse perspectives from across Irish society; and identify EU-wide issues, themes, and policy areas that should be given particular attention during Ireland’s Presidency.

Submissions received to the public consultation are available below. They are organised alphabetically and grouped according to whether they were submitted by an individual or an organisation. All submissions received in a non-Word document format have been converted to Word document for accessibility purposes. All relevant personal information has been redacted, though the names of any public figures have not been redacted. Submissions where consent was not obtained to publish have not been published.

Where respondents provided additional attachments to support their submission, this is noted by an asterisk (*). These additional attachments will be published in the coming weeks once all necessary redactions have been applied.

• Individual submissions
• Organisation submissions (0-9 and symbols)
• Organisation submissions (A-B)
• Organisation submissions (C)
• Organisation submissions (D-E)
• Organisation submissions (F-H)
• Organisation submissions (I)
• Organisation submissions (K-N)
• Organisation submissions (O-R)
• Organisation submissions (S)
• Organisation submissions (T-Z)

Feedback received from submissions are currently being considered as part of the development of Ireland’s Presidency priorities and policy programme, which will be published in June 2026. A submissions summary report will be prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is expected to be published by May/June 2026.