My guest is Angelo Donahue.

Angelo Donahue.

Angola Donahue is Ireland's permanent representative to the European Union, a post she has held since August 2023.

Prior to that, she was Assistant Secretary General of the Department of the Tyshoc, Prime Minister's Office,

responsibility for Northern Ireland, British Irish Affairs and the Shared Ireland Initiative.

Before that, she was Director General of the EU Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, and before that, Ambassador Ireland to the Republic of Korea with secondary accreditation to North Korea.

Welcome to the podcast, Angle.

Thank you very much, Paul.

Well, next month, Ireland takes over the presidency of the European Union. I think it's the

eighth time you'll be in the chair, so it's quite an important event. I appreciate when we're

recording this that you have not formally published your work program, your priorities for the

six months to the end of the year. But let's try and see what I can tease out of you about what

your priorities are.

If you were to think of maybe three top priorities, even if they're not formally confirmed yet,

that you have to face, that the EU has to face, not just your presidency, what would they be?

So, I mean, I think while our programme is still to be published, as is the norm,

our ministers and our government have spoken on number of occasions in public,

which gives me greater leeway for this podcast.

And in particular, they have identified that our presidency will be built around three core pillars

of competitiveness, values and security.

And I mean, I can talk through any one of those in some more detail for you.

I mean, I think, as always, an architecture can only take you so far, because what I would

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