BRITISH PRIME MINISTER David Cameron has arrived in Dublin for a bilateral meeting with the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, ahead of their attendance at a State dinner in honour of Queen Elizabeth in Dublin Castle this evening.

Speaking to reporters in advance of their meeting at Government Buildings, the Taoiseach said Cameron’s visit was “obviously a great honour for us” – particularly given that it coincided with the Queen’s own visit to Ireland.

Among the items being discussed in the hour-long meeting, he said, would be “how coalitions work” – with both Kenny’s Fine Gael and David Cameron’s Conservative Party currently coping with their own experiences of power-sharing.

The “necessity to have vigilance in terms of security” would also be discussed, Kenny said.

Cameron expressed his “particular delight” that his visit was coinciding with that of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, saying that people in the UK had been “particularly struck” by the warm pictures being reproduced in the British press.

The joint visit, Cameron said, dealt with both the “enormous sensitivities of the issues and the problems of the past, but also the opportunities and the excitement of the future.

“Above all, I see it as a relationship of opportunity – of two countries as neighbours and friends,” the prime minister concluded.

Among the other items expected to be brought up during the meeting is the potential release of Britain’s intelligence files on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, on foot of a motion being discussed to that end in the Dáil last night and this evening.