European Council: Statements

The Taoiseach

On 28 and 29 June, I will attend a meeting of the European Council in Brussels. I will also attend a meeting of the European Council in its Article 50 format and a eurozone summit. The meeting of the European Council proper on Thursday will focus on security and defence, migration, jobs, growth and competitiveness, innovation and digital issues, the multi-annual financial framework, and external relations. It is a heavy agenda. On Friday morning, we will meet in Article 50 format to discuss the Brexit negotiations. After that, there will be a Euro summit that will focus on the deepening of economic and monetary union. I will focus my remarks on Brexit and on some of the other issues of particular significance for Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, will speak about the other European Council issues in greater detail in her statement.

Our discussions on Brexit on Friday morning will be based on an assessment from Mr. Michel Barnier on progress since the March European Council. He will report that there has been some progress on elements of the legal text of the withdrawal agreement, including on areas such as VAT, EURATOM and certificates for goods. He will also make it clear that serious divergences remain on Irish issues, regarding which there has been no substantial progress since March.

The UK entered into commitments in December. It agreed that the withdrawal agreement will set out the legal terms on which it will leave the EU. It agreed that it must contain a legally operative backstop to avoid a hard border on this island. This commitment was restated in writing in March. On 7 June, the UK presented a technical paper on a temporary customs arrangement between it and the EU. It has suggested that this arrangement would apply after the proposed period of transition if it were needed to avoid a hard Border on the island of Ireland. While it is positive that there is now a written proposal from the British Government, the paper itself acknowledges that an arrangement for customs is only part of the solution. Arrangements on regulatory alignment will also be required. Furthermore, the proposal had fundamental shortcomings, including the suggestion that the arrangement could be time limited. Having studied the paper, the Commission has identified numerous issues regarding the proposal's legal and technical viability, and its fundamental incompatibility with the integrity of the Single Market and the customs union.

In presenting his views on the state of play in the negotiations, the Union's negotiator has said that the UK must deliver on its commitments in full. The withdrawal agreement must contain a fully operational backstop for Ireland and Northern Ireland. He has stated his belief that a lot more work needs to be done if there is to be an agreement by October.

When the Tánaiste and I met with the European Commission President, Mr. Jean Claude Juncker, and Mr. Michel Barnier last Thursday, we were all in complete agreement in our assessment that serious divergences persist. As I said in my remarks after the meeting – and I put it bluntly – there is not much time left if we are to conclude an agreement in October and have it ratified by the European Parliament and UK Parliament in time for the UK's departure in March. The Irish Government and the Union's negotiators have said that there is an urgent need to intensify efforts and negotiations. We should all be in no doubt that, without a backstop, there will be no withdrawal agreement and that without a withdrawal agreement there will be no period of transition for the UK. As a result, the choice for it is stark. That is what I will be saying when I update European Council colleagues this week. I expect that the European Council will send a message to the UK. Negotiations on the withdrawal agreement can only progress as long as all commitments undertaken so far are respected in full.

The Government hopes that it will also be possible to set out in detail the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the UK alongside the withdrawal agreement. As we have always said, we hope that this can be as close and comprehensive as possible, and we hope that it will remove any need for a hard border, not just between the North and South but also between the east and west. However, it will not in any way remove the need for a legally robust backstop to apply unless and until better arrangements enter into force, ensuring that there will never be a hard border on this island, whatever circumstances prevail.

In the draft protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, the EU has put its version of a viable backstop on the table. It is entirely in line with the agreement reached between the EU and the UK last December. The UK acknowledges now that it needs to engage fully on this text.

Our EU partners remain steadfast in their support of Ireland, something for which we are profoundly grateful. At our meeting in Dublin on Thursday last, President Juncker reiterated that the EU is fully behind Ireland in the negotiations and that this will not change. That message was also clear in my telephone conversation with President Tusk last Thursday. Our partners are absolutely determined to avoid any situation in which Ireland would be isolated. Indeed, Ireland's concerns are at the very heart of the negotiations. Ireland's interests are seen and felt as EU interests, as President Juncker said.

Irish issues are not the only ones that remain outstanding. Other very important issues remain open, including, crucially, the governance of the withdrawal agreement, and the role of the European Court of Justice, ECJ. Now there will have to be renewed and intensified efforts to resolve all the outstanding issues, including the backstop. Work should also be accelerated on the framework for the future relationship between the EU and UK. Here, again, the UK needs to provide written proposals if we are to make progress. While I am hopeful that we will achieve a close, comprehensive and ambitious future relationship with the UK, the Government is, of course, continuing to plan for the full range of scenarios. I expect that the European Council will urge all member states to do likewise at its meeting this week.

Turning to other issues, migration continues to be a priority concern for the Union, and we will exchange views on the progress achieved to date in our comprehensive response to mass migration and on our plans for the future.

While there has been some progress on overall EU policies, it is no secret that there are differences of opinion between member states, particularly on to how to manage the issue internally. A breakthrough at the European Council is not impossible but it is considered very unlikely at this stage.

Ireland has sought to play a constructive role in discussions on migration and to be an active and pragmatic partner. We opted in to the EU relocation and resettlement measures in 2015 and we provided a series of fully crewed naval vessels to assist with humanitarian search-and-rescue efforts in the Mediterranean. We have substantially increased our humanitarian assistance to relevant regions. We should continue to play an active and constructive role on this issue. It is an issue that is too big for individual nation states and that can only be solved collectively.

We need to strengthen the Union's external borders. We also need to work actively with partners, including in Africa, to drive political and economic development so people can have security, good governance and economic opportunities. Finally, we need to find a means to respond to the question internally, in a spirit of fairness and solidarity.

Under the heading of jobs, growth and competitiveness, we will discuss the country-specific recommendations, digital taxation and trade. We had a useful exchange on digital taxation at our leaders' agenda meeting in March and, as agreed at the time, conclusions on the issue will now be adopted.

It is important to stress that Ireland is fully committed to global tax reform. We do not accept that companies should pay little or no tax on their profits. This, however, is a global issue, which therefore requires a global solution. We need to ensure that tax is paid by companies where value is created, not simply where a transaction happens. Unilateral EU action on this basis would damage EU competitiveness and disadvantage smaller member states and exporters.

The Commission has recommended a short-term temporary tax on certain limited digital tax activities in advance of more extensive taxation measures in the future. Along with several other EU member states, we have urged caution around any short-term measure. We need solutions that are workable and sustainable in the long term. I believe strongly that the OECD is the best forum for making progress on this because it needs the widest possible international consensus. We will, of course, continue to engage constructively with the EU, in addition to the OECD, in the period ahead.

On trade, I strongly oppose the US Administration's decision to apply tariffs on steel and aluminium. These are not justifiable on the grounds of national security. I fully support the Commission's approach of proportionate rebalancing and safeguarding measures, along with legal proceedings at the World Trade Organization, WTO.

We also need to maintain a positive trade agenda at the European Council, however. I expect the European Council to call for the Union to continue to negotiate ambitious, balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreements with partners across the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Latin America. This is something that I welcome and that is very much in Ireland's interests.

On security and defence, which comprise another priority for many partners, we will examine many areas, including permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, military mobility, the European Defence Fund, the defence industrial development programme and co-operation with NATO, as well as work undertaken to strengthen civilian Common Security and Defence Policy.

Partners are respectful of Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality in these discussions. We are founding members of PESCO and support greater EU-NATO co-operation where it contributes to international peace and security. This ensures better coherence and effectiveness on the ground in peace support and crisis management operations.

The euro summit meeting on Friday morning will take place in its inclusive format, that is, with all 27 member states and will focus on economic and monetary union, EMU. The main issues will relate to banking union, the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, and proposals for establishing a budget for the eurozone. From Ireland’s perspective, we support the completion of a banking union as soon as practicable with appropriate risk reduction and risk-sharing measures. We can support the ESM as the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund. I expect agreement on this will be difficult, however.

I note the interest in establishing a budget for the eurozone. The intention is to task finance Ministers to examine the proposals carefully with a view to returning to these matters at the December European Council. One would have to know whether a eurozone budget would require additional contributions from Irish taxpayers, how much and what taxes, where will it come from, how much would it be, how it would be spent and whether it would be compatible for the eurozone and the EU to have separate budgets. These issues need to be teased out clearly. We need to have those questions answered before we can commit to supporting it.

Deputy Micheál Martin

Did the Taoiseach write a letter?

The Taoiseach

The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, will speak on the other issues on the agenda of the European Council including innovation and digital, the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, and external relations.

I look forward to engaging with my EU colleagues at the European Council, while always keeping in mind the best interests of Ireland and Europe.

I look forward to reporting back to the House on 4 July.

Deputy Micheál Martin

I note the Taoiseach is a bit more informed today about the eurozone budget proposals than he was yesterday. That is to be welcomed.

This week's summit was due to mark a moment of significant progress on Brexit. Unfortunately, this will not now happen. For Ireland, many warning signals are now going off, which suggests that, at best, meeting our negotiating objectives will be extremely difficult. Given the scale of how important this is, I will use this brief statement to focus solely on Brexit. My colleagues will address the other important issues on the Council's agenda during their contributions.

It is now over two years since the Brexit referendum and over six months since the political text was agreed. Then the Taoiseach said, in an obviously euphoric mood, "We have achieved all we set out to achieve". The reality of the situation today, however, is that the only agreed text regarding Ireland concerns matters which were never actually in doubt. What has been agreed are points which were found in negotiating positions produced by both sides in the first half of last year. A deadline, which we were repeatedly told was central to the achievement of Ireland's objectives, will now be missed this week. The draft conclusions for the summit state clearly "No substantial progress has yet been achieved".

The Government’s tactic, however, is to throw a few digs at London and hope that nobody notices that its negotiating strategy is, at best, in deep trouble. There are major questions which must be asked. What exactly is the current status of the negotiations on Ireland? What will the Government do to change a dangerous dynamic which may lead to a poor outcome later this year?

One of the problems in talking about Brexit has been the shift over the past year to a situation where the bulk of coverage in our media is dominated by official briefings. There has been very little tough questioning of the Government and no real attempt to ask our leaders to reconcile obvious contradictions in their positions. At the political level, what had been an open approach to discussions with other pro-EU parties on this issue changed completely in the middle of last year. In place of dialogue, we have seen a remarkable level of arrogance and a demand that other parties shut up and toe the line. In fact, there has been growing evidence of a Government which is willing to play cynical political games with Brexit, even going as far as to try to talk up the supposed instability of its negotiating mandate.

Fine Gael’s leaked research and its always industrious briefers confirm the Taoiseach wants to engineer a way of recreating the wave of uncritical support he received after last December's agreement. My party will not let this messing by the Government distract from the hard substance of the challenge which Brexit poses to Ireland, as well as the need for clarity about what Ireland is seeking and believes is a credible outcome.

The position today is less clear than at any stage since early last year. The simple and hard fact is that the Government spent six months saying June was a critical moment when we had to see substantial agreement on Ireland’s specific proposals. The Government’s strategy had two main tactical objectives from the beginning. First, that Ireland would not still be on the table when the final status element of the withdrawal treaty was being discussed. Second, that we would support the United Kingdom if it tried to find a back door to continued access to the customs union and Single Market. Both of these tactical manoeuvres have failed, however, leaving us in a deeply uncertain position.

The Taoiseach has taken to claiming that he always insisted that June was not a deadline. The record shows this is, however, simply not the case. The record of the House is full of his statements saying progress was required by June in order for there to be a deal. Separately, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on 16 March said Ireland was putting down a marker for June. On 29 April, he said that Ireland would not allow negotiations to move forward without clear signals of a solution and "we need to see substantial progress in June". On 14 May, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said Ireland certainly needed to see a solution on the backstop taking shape by the end of June.

It is possible to go on with similar quotes, demonstrating that June was indicated as a decisive date for Ireland by our own Government. In fact, the Government went further than this at one stage. On 12 December, as well as in various media appearances afterwards, both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said the phase 2 talks would be suspended if there was any attempt by the United Kingdom at backsliding on the backstop agreement. It has attempted to backslide. The June deadline has been missed and no significant progress has been made. In these circumstances, the very least the Government owes the Dáil and the people is an honest explanation for what this means and why it has decided not to follow through on its loud and repeated threats. No party on this side of the House has called for a suspension of the talks at any time. The Government, however, has threatened to do so. It needs to explain why it is backing off. It is not good enough for the Government to effectively try to cough into its hand, have another go at the Brits and hope people have not noticed it has just missed its own key deadline.

Yesterday, the Government issued yet another official update on Brexit developments. It included a range of reports and six photographs of the Taoiseach. It contained no mention, whatsoever, of this week's summit and the missed deadline. Fundamentally, the Brexit mess is purely the creation of a particular class of English politician for whom self-regard and a disinterest in facts has elevated prejudice to the level of ideology. They have turned their country from the fastest-growing economy in Europe to the slowest and have already reduced the national income by an estimated £400 million a week. They have been as incompetent and incoherent as it is possible to be.

This does not absolve our Government from its responsibility to be open about the status of the negotiations, the increasing risk of new barriers to trade and what appears a complete breakdown in political level contacts with London on this issue. We also need the Government to have the honesty to admit that it may have wasted months in the hope that London could use the backstop as a way to reverse the United Kingdom as a whole into the customs union and Single Market.

This was the proposal made earlier this month by the UK Prime Minister, Mrs. May. When the Taoiseach was briefed by her about it he welcomed it as progress. However, he has been distancing himself from it since Michel Barnier rejected it as unacceptable cherry-picking that endangers the European Union's legal order. I know the Taoiseach denies this but the record shows he has supported this option for some time. In a written statement he released on 8 December, when praising himself for achieving "all we set out to achieve", he explicitly stated, "So there is a backstop arrangement in which Northern Ireland and perhaps all the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with rules of the Internal Market and Customs Union".

The Taoiseach himself supported the use of the backstop for the whole of the United Kingdom. It was proposed by the United Kingdom but has now been rejected, involving a waste of scarce time in the process.

The backstop was sold by the Taoiseach, to quote just a few of the descriptions he has used, as "bulletproof", "concrete", "cast-iron" and "rock-solid", yet six months on there has been no progress on turning it into an agreed legal text or in reconciling the Taoiseach's interpretation of the backstop with the claim he made on 8 December that there would be no new barriers between Northern Ireland and Britain.

Following passage of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill last week in Westminster, Brexit is for the first time a legal fact in British law. There appears to be no reasonable scenario whereby it can be reversed and Brexiteers now have a stronger hand. Equally, there are 39 billion reasons to believe that the momentum for a withdrawal treaty is unstoppable. Given how Ireland cried wolf about suspending the negotiations if London tried to backslide, we must assume our Government accepts this.

What is the dynamic which has taken a non-productive strategy over the past six months and delivered a new impetus behind the type of deal we were told was already in the bag last December? Is it really the Taoiseach's position that our Government can go through this process without proposing anything concrete? Do we really have no proposals as to how continued free trade would work on this island? Unless something serious is done, the final status paper the United Kingdom Government is to produce will be the new focus of negotiations and will confirm that Ireland is directly linked to this wider issue. We need this summit to mark the end of a period of tough talk matched by ongoing drift. We need our Government to put aside the spin and be direct and honest about how it believes this process can reasonably end.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald

My comments will relate particularly to the Friday meeting in Article 50 format and the issue of Brexit. This Council meeting is crunch time, as I have said to the Taoiseach before. We need to see realistic and workable solutions from the British Government as to how it proposes to avoid a hard border, uphold the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and ensure that citizens' rights in the North will be protected. It is not accurate to say the Government has simply been throwing shapes at the British, as though to suggest that the burden of culpability lies on this side of the water. I do not accept that. British prevarication and the British Government's failure to come up with a solution in accordance with what it claims to be its policy is a fault of theirs, and it is important that is not lost in the midst of this debate. June was set as a red-letter date and a deadline, and with good reason, and it is a mistake to allow that to slip. There can be no question of negotiations moving to the next phase without the requisite guarantees coming from the British Government. In fact, it would be negligent and disastrous for anyone to contemplate progress in the absence of a concrete answer to the Irish question.

We have had our fill of Tory playacting and game-playing. We have had enough doublespeak and dodging. What we need now is clarity and certainty. This needs to be put to the British Prime Minister, Mrs. May, in a direct and forthright manner by An Taoiseach at this meeting. If, as we know will happen, the British Government fails to meet its responsibilities, then it needs to be called out because its position, as it stands, would mean a hard border, damage to our economy and the erection of barriers to east-west trade. It would undermine the Good Friday Agreement - the House should be in no doubt about that - and crucial areas of cross-Border co-operation and would see the rights of Irish and European citizens cast aside. Tall tales of frictionless borders and grandiose nonsense about buffer zones have been entertained for far too long. It is now time to dial down the rhetoric and time for a little straight talking. It is time for common sense, a common sense sorely lacking in the Tory analysis and strategy brought to bear so far.

The British Prime Minister needs to understand that Ireland will not be the collateral damage in a Tory Brexit. She also needs to be reminded that the North of Ireland voted to remain and that the British Government's denial of this vote is an affront to democracy and runs contrary to the consent principle enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. Brexit is Britain's problem, of their creation, not ours, and we will not be its casualties. Irish jobs, Irish Industry, Irish rights and Irish peace agreements cannot be jeopardised to appease the Brexiteers. It is the Taoiseach's duty and the duty of the Irish Government to stand up to the Tory sabre-rattling. The Brexiteer bullies cannot be allowed to bully Ireland. Their threats of the undoubted economic fallout for Ireland from Brexit are loudly mouthed by those who care little for this country, North or South, much less for our achievement of peace. The manner in which they loudly glory in the harm they can do to their nearest neighbour is matched only by the self-harm they are intent on inflicting on their own country. People who espouse the views encapsulated by Boris Johnson in his tirade at the weekend need to understand that we will not be threatened or intimidated by him.

The British Government cannot be allowed to hide from its responsibilities, especially when it comes to the issue of the backstop. Its tactic of playing for time while turning its face against the political agreement reached last December is not acceptable. The backstop agreed in December is Ireland's insurance policy against the imposition of World Trade Organization, WTO, rules in the event of a no-deal scenario. The British Government cannot be allowed to think that this backstop is now off the table, that somehow Ireland and the EU will buy the Alice in Wonderland notions it is selling, that it can scrap the December deal and that it can leave Ireland without any legal assurances. The firm position of the Taoiseach and the Government must be that the December backstop is the bottom line, that the backstop is not and cannot be temporary and that it will not have a lifespan determined and set by the Tories. The backstop is in fact the bare minimum. We should regard it as the floor, not the ceiling, to be built upon. It is an absolute essential in the absence, as I said, of a trade agreement. The aim of the Irish Government at this meeting should be to secure a commitment from the British Government that it will honour, at a minimum, the deal as enunciated in December and that it will now provide the very necessary legally binding guarantees to that effect.

To be clear, if the British Government refuses to give these assurances, we cannot wait until October to see if the sunshine and the improved mood of summer might help it to wise up. Irish political leadership cannot slip into a summertime hibernation and then emerge wide-eyed in the autumn hoping for the best. That is not a strategy. That would be irresponsible. We cannot sit back and allow the Tories to have the ball and dictate the course of play for the next three months. The EU strategy must be shaped and informed by Irish thinking, by an Irish perspective on how to move things forward. We need to initiate and to lead. The Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, must make it clear how they plan to respond if the British Government refuses to deliver these legally binding commitments. What happens next? We need a plan of action that spans the summer months. It must involve, with all due respect, something more than shuttle diplomacy or a tour of capitals. Otherwise, we run the real risk of Irish concerns being rolled into the EU's "new relationship" with Britain. The House should make no mistake: such an outcome would be dangerous for Ireland.

It cannot be allowed to happen. Make no mistake: it is the considered strategy of the British Government. It is playing for time for precisely this reason. Much is at stake and in the past two years we have had nothing but chaos and division from the British Government. We have had two years of putting Ireland at risk economically, politically and socially. Now is the time to draw a line in the sand and say, "Enough is enough".

This meeting will be a serious and substantive test of the "Ireland first" position articulated by Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier, Jean-Claude Juncker and our Government. "Ireland first" cannot simply be sweet words whispered to assure the ears of the Irish public. The Irish public do not want to be soothed; they want solutions, protection, security and guarantees. In Brussels, “Ireland first" must ring emphatically in the ears of the British Prime Minister and her negotiating team. They should be left in no doubt as to the absolute certainty of that position. Those words must then be applied in both policy and action. The EU and the Government must tell the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, that she has come this far but will not go any further without delivering credible solutions and without answering the Irish question. It is as simple, straightforward and essential as this.

I raised this matter when the European Commission President, Mr. Juncker, addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas. An annex to the backstop on the issue of citizens' rights was to be published. It is within the gift of the EU through Mr. Barnier's task force to publish this annex. I ask the Taoiseach, Mr. Barnier and the EU to publish that text without delay.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

This will mark the Taoiseach's fifth EU Council meeting. It will also mark two years since the UK citizenry voted to leave the European Union. Unfortunately, little progress has been made on addressing Ireland’s core concerns to date. The bulletproof backstop that was agreed last December has clearly now not been translated into an agreed legal text. Talks on the future relationship between the UK and the EU were opened after the previous Council meeting without any such fallback being firmly and legally understood and in place.

Ireland is continually reassured of the solidarity of our fellow member states and of the EU leadership; we again heard it last week. However, as others have said, we stand at a crossroads. On 30 April addressing the civil dialogue in Dundalk, the Taoiseach said, "Over the coming weeks, I hope and expect that we will see further progress in the negotiations on developing a close overall relationship between the EU and the UK, as well as on the necessary completion of the legal text on the backstop." Sadly, two months on, that simply has not happened.

A month ago, the Taoiseach said that the Government position was that progress had to be made by the June Council meeting. The Tánaiste also said there must be significant progress in advance of the June meeting. Sadly, there has been no additional progress. Now the delayed process will become incredibly compressed. There is simply no time for further delay.

The political challenge is to come up with creative solutions that are also robust. I do not downplay or underestimate the challenges that that objective poses. It is essential that the Government insist on a deadline for the UK to produce a backstop agreement on the Border. It should be well in advance of the European Council meeting in October in order that we know exactly the position and so that Ireland is not pushed into a last-minute compromise that could fundamentally damage our interests.

The ball is firmly in the Taoiseach's court, and he must now use the commitments and solidarity repeatedly expressed by our colleagues and co-member states to ensure a deadline is agreed well in advance of October.

Last weekend the Taoiseach warned that a no-deal Brexit is now more likely. The ongoing failure of the UK Government to arrive at a settled position even among itself to address the inconsistencies of its publicly stated red lines continues to drag down this entire process. It is quite depressing to tune to some of the political commentary in Britain, as I did again this morning. A fortnight ago, I spent the day in London meeting UK Labour Party parliamentary colleagues, organisations such as Open Britain and the most senior members of the Trades Union Congress in Britain. I firmly believe the possibility is growing that the UK will crash out of the EU without a comprehensive deal. This is not because of the position adopted by the EU at Ireland's behest, but because the internal dysfunction and blatant rivalries in the Conservative Party. It makes the British Government incapable of making a deal or sticking to any stated position.

The UK Prime Minister, Mrs. May, won an important victory in the House of Commons on the exit Bill, but her Cabinet remains at war. While it continues to negotiate with itself, the consequences of a hard Brexit for jobs in Ireland, particularly in the agrifood sector, will be catastrophic.

The economic relationship between Ireland and Britain has shifted from one of historical dependence to one of mutual interdependence. Nearly £14 billion of goods are exported from Ireland to the UK, including an important percentage of the food that sustains the British people. In turn, we import almost £16 billion of UK goods into Ireland. The customs union is what makes this trade possible. No quotas, no tariffs and standardised regulations mean consignments do not need border controls or checks. Ireland also exports £16 billion of services to the UK, including from many multinationals based in Ireland. Ireland buys £10 billion of services from the UK. The Single Market facilitates this through standards for services in different sectors, the free movement of money capital and workers, and the legal certainty for business provided by the common jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Our trade represents over £1 billion in goods and services every week and supports tens of thousands of jobs here.

The uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of Brexit has led to financial companies and major industrial companies delaying investment or moving part of their activity out of the UK. Major companies, for example in the motor industry, are taking the supply lines out of Britain. We have heard of companies such as Airbus outline their concerns. Anybody who speaks the truth is vilified in the British press. It is hard to see how we can avoid having border infrastructure on the island of Ireland as well as border checks at British and Irish ports, if the UK remains outside the customs union and Single Market - or at least if a solution is not found for it to remain in close alignment with those institutions.

The problem, of course, is that free trade depends on sharing the same set of regulations and standards on each side of a trade agreement. All the UK Government's proposals to maintain the open border have been rejected by the EU, including Ireland. This is not out of spite or wanting to punish anybody, but because they will not work to achieve frictionless trade. We want free trade, North-South, and free trade, if it is possible to negotiate it, east-west. However, we cannot have that free trade if the UK does not maintain the same standards as the European Union. If the UK rolls back on regulation of the financial sector, it would undermine the level playing field for Irish financial services. If the UK dilutes workers’ rights or environmental rights, this again will lead to new barriers being put in place. Many of these regulations are the cornerstone of social Europe and the work of the Party of European Socialists over the decades.

Following this summit, where it is now plain little or no progress will be made on these issues, the British Prime Minister, Mrs. May, will hold a Cabinet meeting in Chequers next week.

Apparently, it will be a 24-hour marathon meeting to finalise a White Paper on its plans for a future relationship with the EU. The emerging position of Mrs. May appears to be a form of maximum facilitation rather than a customs partnership, so it will leave the customs union in a manner demanded by the Brexiteers. However, it could take a decade to develop those so-called easily available maximum facilitation arrangements, tying the UK to the customs union for all that time to maintain the backstop.

On the Single Market, the UK will seek access for manufactured goods to maintain its industrial base and protect major employers like the car manufacturing industry. Such an arrangement, if agreed with the EU, would smooth issues at the Border on our island but create enormous difficulties for our EU partners. The UK would still diverge on services and, in this scenario, take EU rules on goods and likely be subject to the ECJ. It is impossible to envisage how that set of proposals could be acceptable. It remains implausible that the UK can negotiate a deal in the timeline that is now set out. The notion that it could get a better deal with other trading blocs than is already available through the EU is fanciful, unless it determines to abandon social and environmental protections. The time to make hard decisions is fast approaching. There is also a growing campaign in the UK for a second vote on the outcome - whatever it might be - of the discussions. It makes sense to me as a logical thing to do but it is a matter for the British. The Council will also consider important reforms in other areas.

I will conclude on the Brexit issue. I have said for the past six months that it seems that the overarching position of the British Government is simply to hold together and say whatever is necessary at any given time for it to remain intact and for Prime Minister May to remain in office. We have run out of rope on that strategy in terms of the positioning of Ireland. I ask the Taoiseach to call out the British Government on that matter this weekend in order that we can get down to the nitty-gritty of hardcore discussions in the few months that are left.

Deputy Paul Murphy

The world is watching what is happening in the US with horror as the attacks by Trump on migrants increase, with the upholding of the Muslim ban, the separation and caging of children of migrants and the speech he made to a conservative political action committee, PAC, in recent days in which he compared migrants with snakes, thereby very clearly dehumanising them. People are rightly horrified about that. Migration will feature heavily at this meeting of the European Council. The problem is that the same direction of travel is evident in what the EU and the governments of member states are doing. The walls of fortress Europe are being built higher and higher. They are being more militarised. The treatment of those who make it to the EU is getting worse. The consequence is that more people are dying in the Mediterranean. One estimate said that since Salvini in Italy turned away the Aquarius, the number of those dying has increased by 20%. The situation is symbolised by what is facing migrants on the MV Lifeline who are seeking to find a port, being rejected here, there and everywhere and being denied access for a period. That comes on the back of the Aquarius and the Alexander Maersk being told there is no room at the inn by a series of European Governments. Look at what Emmanuel Macron, who is supposedly a progressive figure and someone the Taoiseach looks up to, stated. He condemned the German NGO and indicated the migrants should have been left to the mercy of the Libyan coastguard. That is the Libyan coastguard which, according to the Irish office of Amnesty International, is intercepting people in distress at sea and transferring them to Libya where they are being held in detention centres and exposed to systematic and widespread human rights violations such as arbitrary detention, torture, rape and exploitation.

The policy of the European Union is the externalisation of Europe's borders, making deals with autocratic regimes in Turkey, Libya and elsewhere and the encouragement of human rights abuses to try to keep people away. It is a policy that is copied by Trump. The latter has externalised the American border by militarising the southern frontier with Mexico. The results in terms of whether it works or not are in. It has not reduced in any sense the number of migrants coming to the US but it has pushed people into taking more dangerous routes. It has increased their vulnerability to trafficking and criminals of all sorts. Exactly the same process happens in Europe by making migration more difficult. We saw what happened in Italy with the leader of the Lega, Matteo Salvini, sickly calling for a registry of Roma and their expulsion. We have the crisis in the German Government, the outcome of which will be a hardening of its line on migration. We know which way this is pointing in terms of European policy. It is reflected in the Meseberg Declaration of France and Germany. The latter identifies three key areas on migration and asylum and calls for increased support and co-operation with origin and transit countries building on existing partnerships such as the EU-Turkey statement - that is, externalisation - avoid departures to Europe, fight illegal migration and speed up the process of return. The declaration also refers to jointly and resolutely tackling secondary movements. The Government has echoed that line in replies to parliamentary questions, etc. That is clearly the direction in which it is pointing.

We need an end to fortress Europe. We need to put a stop to the racist immigration controls that are applied. The European Union and the countries that make it up also need to stop the policies that are responsible for or contribute very significantly to the crisis of migration. They need to stop the imperialist intervention in the Middle East, which is responsible for a flood of human misery, and the trade policies based on maximising profits of European corporations at the expense of those people and their economies. We need debt cancellations. We need trade policies based on assistance and solidarity. In short, we need socialist policies in Europe. It is an indictment of the capitalist system that there are 60 million refugees across the world. The way the capitalist governments of Europe and the EU treat them is a further indictment of that system.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

"Trump is a pig" ran the banner at the Roger Waters gig last night in the 3Arena. The audience at the gig erupted in applause and cheering when it saw the words emblazoned behind Roger Waters. The visual imagery conveyed the horror of Trump's racist, anti-migrant policies, his plans for walls and his incarceration of children. It was then followed by another banner that highlighted the rise of the far right across Europe, naming Orban in Hungary, Kurz in Austria, Le Pen in France, Farage in the UK and the Lega in Italy. One can go through the frightening list of racist and, in some cases, openly fascist forces. Deputy Paul Murphy is absolutely right to point to the fact, as Roger Waters did at the concert last night, that the horror of Trump is being echoed in the growth of terrifying far-right and racist forces across Europe. This is impacting on the policies of the European Union in the creation of its own version of the racist wall and the vast expansion of fortress Europe, the budget of which will be multiplied by five between 2021 and 2027.

The previous budget for frontier officers, which was €4 billion for the previous five years is now going up to €25 billion. There will be more officers to keep desperate migrants coming from North Africa, Syria and elsewhere out of Europe with the consequence that 35,000 men, women and children, including babies, have drowned in the Mediterranean because Europe, while often condemning Trump, rightly, is doing the same thing. It is hatching agreements with authoritarian, brutal, despotic regimes in Libya and across the Middle East, co-operating with regimes such as the one in Egypt and so on, which are involved in vile policies that are creating the refugee crisis that is leading thousands of people in desperation to try to enter Europe from where they are repelled. It worries me that in the Taoiseach’s references to the discussions about what is to be discussed, he used the slightly sanitised language about the need for investment in maintaining Europe's external borders. That is sanitised language for fortress Europe and for all those people who are drowning and for those rotten cynical deals with regimes such as that in Libya and others, which are treating human beings coming through their countries seeking asylum and sanctuary like animals and slaves. They are abusing them, which is leading to the deaths of many.

The other theme highlighted by the Roger Waters concert, which is also relevant to the coming conference, was the plight of the Palestinian people and their treatment at the hands of Israel. Waters has taken the very commendable stance of refusing to go to or to have concerts in Israel and has joined the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel because of its horrific treatment of the Palestinians. The latest instance of this crisis, because of what Trump has done, is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, budget is about to collapse so there may be no schools in Gaza and 5 million Palestinians who depend on that budget are now in serious trouble. Save the Children has stated Gaza is now uninhabitable for many children.

I warned the Taoiseach before the great return march took place that Palestinians would be killed, as more than 100 of them were. I appealed to the Taoiseach to speak to his European colleagues about what Israel was planning to do. Let me again warn him: on Tuesday, 3 July, women in Gaza will be marching demanding an end to the siege which is strangling their habitation and destroying the lives of their children. They will be marching to demand the right to return, the right to justice and an end to the siege. I hope we do not see another unleashing of ferocious attacks by Israel on women who will march next Tuesday but I appeal to the Taoiseach once again to raise the plight of the Palestinians and demand from his European counterparts that Europe does something instead of mouthing words of concern to alleviate the suffering and plight of the Palestinians.

Deputy Thomas Pringle

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the upcoming Council meeting, which is important on several issues such as Brexit, migration and neutrality. Even if we get everything we want through the Brexit deal, we will come out worse off because of the threats Europe is posing to our neutrality. We will give away far more than we will gain if we continue on this road and if we do it in the unthinking and cavalier way that the Government is proceeding, supporting everything that is happening in Europe, not questioning anything and not allowing debate to take place here in Ireland where people could give their view on it. This is because the Government is afraid of what people's views would be and does not want to have to go back to its masters in Europe with the message that we do not want to continue on the road that Europe is proceeding along in respect of neutrality and becoming a world power. The Deputies who spoke before me were right to say we should be using our role within the EU to raise the issues and concerns about the Palestinians and migration with a strong voice instead of kowtowing, as we are, to Europe on the issues of neutrality, migration and ultimately Brexit too. The Minister of State will say that is not right but we have seen that in the recent bailouts in Greece, Portugal and Spain, Europe insisted that these countries pay back their debts during the financial crisis but did not support cuts in military spending in any of those countries because France and Germany were the countries that were sending the military materiel to Spain, Greece and Portugal. They wanted to make sure they got paid and they were promoting militarisation.

Jean-Claude Juncker has called for a Europe with a security union, with the end goal of establishing a European army. That is what we are participating in and are quite happy to go along with because the Minister of State will say that will never happen, we are not going to do that, we are participating only in what will protect our neutrality. We all know that is rubbish. We will be so far down the road that the Government will turn around and say, we are already in it so it does not matter.

We have to be proactive on immigration. It is not enough for us to wait for a country to ask for assistance; we must put ourselves forward. That is the way to counteract the right wing governments around Europe. We can create a counterbalance by putting that forward and saying people have to be treated properly and with respect because those who come to Europe are looking for respect and protection. We also have to question the policies Europe is espousing around the world that are driving the people looking for help here. If France and England had not bombed the hell out of Libya, all these immigrants would not be coming through there. We know what is happening and that Europe is the cause of the problem too. It has to deal with those issues in a proper way, ensuring that people can make a life for themselves in their own countries. That is what will help and will solve the issue once and for all.

Everybody is speaking about Brexit and my voice will not add a wild pile to the discussion. We are talking in circles because it is not in our control. The Brits are going to do what they will do and we have to react to that. Ultimately what the Europeans do is not in our control either. We are in the lucky position at the minute of thinking we are in great control and they are doing everything for us on Brexit. They are doing it for us only because it is getting at the Brits. Once the Brits do the deal with them we will be cut loose. That is how it will work. We have to play the game and see what the issues are. We will have no control over what the Brits do and that is the sad part of it. They will make the decisions on what they will do and we can only react. That is all that is left for us to do. It is useful in filling up a lot of air time here as we talk about it but we are talking in circles and talking to ourselves until we see what is happening.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I ask the Minister of State to be truthful when she gives her interpretation of what is happening in respect of England leaving the EU.

We were given the impression before Christmas by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste that all was rosy in the garden and that there would not be a hard border. I do not know how or where that interpretation came from because it seems that everything is still up in the air. I believe the discussions should be between Ireland and England and between Europe and England to ensure we do not have a hard border. It will hurt farming, especially in rural areas, and it will hurt small businesses exporting to the UK and to the North of Ireland. The Government needs to put pressure on Prime Minister May to come clean and to make a decision sooner rather than later.

All this is not helping our cause. Britain needs to be cornered - that is the word - and made to come clean as to what it is going to do. The Taoiseach is now saying that he will fight and more or less put it up to Prime Minister May. I hope he will. I believe, however, that the Government should also be trying to encourage the British Government, and indeed the Labour Party, and have talks to see if there is any way another referendum could be devised that would give people in Britain a chance to vote again. Many of them voted the last time purely against the establishment and are sorry now about the outcome of the referendum. I met my own cousins and I asked them about this. They said they had all voted to get out of the EU but if they got one half of a chance, they would not even have to be asked much, they would all vote to stay.

We hear people like that, that we know, and are perhaps surprised at their vote in the first place to get out. That is what I am asking because it is hard to see how we will not have a hard border and how that can be devised. People need to be told how that will be arrived at. The Government now needs to pull out all of the stops and do its best for this country because we are depending on it and the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee. We appreciate what is being done but pressure needs to be kept on to ensure we get what is best for Ireland.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and the senior Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, for the way they have been working diligently on this important issue of Brexit and the implications and problems we are all facing. We are going to face them together in a workperson-like way. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, personally, on behalf of the committee that I chair, for the many and varying engagements that she and her hardworking officials have had with us. It is most appreciated at all times.

Sometimes it is important to call a spade a spade. I refer to the whole situation and the political way that it is being handled by the negotiators on behalf of England and its politicians. They dropped the ball when they shot us with their gun in our feet by doing what they did and leaving us with this mess. They are prevaricating now, not getting on with it and they seem completely at sea. If I was in charge of them, I would sack the whole lot of them because they are a disgrace.

I do not say those things lightly. They know the issues we have to hand. We were over there and we met with many of the senior people dealing with it. To say that I am unhappy with the way they are handling the negotiations and with their outlook and view would be an understatement. They are like a rabbit caught in the headlights and they do not know what way to turn. If it was any other country, it would be big enough to come along and say that this is such a serious thing that we do need another crack at it. It has gone way beyond that because they are too arrogant to admit they got it wrong and that the people should be given a second chance. We may forget about that because it is not going to happen.

From our point of view, nobody can criticise - I am not a spokesperson for this Government - this Government for the way it is handling the situation. If it was mishandling it, I would be the first person to say the Government was doing something wrong. Anybody, however, trying to blame the Irish Government and saying that we have not been playing our part would be totally wrong and unfair. I would not do that. We have to continue what we are doing. I wish to God, however, that it was reciprocated on the other side of the water and that they would finally wake up to the fact that they created a mess and now they have to put their shoulder to the wheel and try to sort it out.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I am happy to be able to address some of these issues. As I understand it Minister - the Taoiseach is gone - the European Council will be discussing economic and monetary union, EMU, which governs the euro area as well as the Union's budget. We know that one of the major illegal activities affecting the EU's financial interests is fraud and smuggling in the European customs transit regime.

I would like the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, however, to bring concerns from Ireland around a different and more tragic form of smuggling - I refer to human trafficking. In one year alone, European countries reported 15,846 victims of human trafficking. Of these, 76% were women and young girls. We know that two out of three, 67%, of the registered victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 21% for other types of forced labour and 12% for other reasons such as begging, organ removal or domestic slavery.

The majority of identified victims were from an EU country. That is appalling, if the Minister of State wants to listen. We also know that Members of the European Parliament, MEPs, adopted an anti-trafficking directive in 2011. It covered issues ranging from prevention to victim support and prosecution of offenders. Then, in 2016, MEPs assessed the current European legislation to combat human trafficking and recommended several measures to improve the situation. Two resolutions were adopted in May and July of that year. MEPs called on EU countries to implement better existing laws and to provide better support to victims. In light of that, I hope the Taoiseach and his Ministers will raise this matter at the Council and seek immediate clarity on attempts to implement anti-human trafficking laws. I am aware that economic issues will be on the table but I am asking the Government to use this occasion to highlight this terrible aspect of the violent and brutal underground economy, where profit is made on the back of the human suffering of innocent men, women and children. It is appalling.

I condemn completely how Deputy Boyd Barrett quoted someone calling the elected president, President Trump, a pig. That is outrageous language and should not be tolerated in any parliament. Mr. Trump is the duly elected leader and President of the United States. Many of our people are living there and many American companies are based here. Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke of being racist but that type of language is completely racist. It is disgraceful and there is no place in a parliament for something like that. I do not agree with the bombing that took place in the Middle East, and with the EU and the Americans, and do not want us to be associated in any way with it.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing us a triple Topical Issue debate. It is the only way that we could get a debate here for the last five years on the persecution of Christians and minority Muslims in the Middle East. It is still going on. There have been allusions today about ships and rescues and I salute our Naval Service for the work it has done there. This Parliament, however, will not even discuss the persecution. Those who live in glasshouses cannot throw stones. We want to be on the attack and yet we do not want to take any responsibility ourselves for what our EU partners are doing in the Middle East. There is ongoing and horrible persecution and we have taken in very inadequate numbers of migrants who are fleeing that persecution.

We have to settle our own scores but I appeal for the EU, at this summit, besides mentioning Brexit, to deal with the smuggling regimes and the abuse of human beings that is being carried out on those who are travelling to EU countries and who are exploited by the merchants of sex and slavery. It is horrific. We thought we had seen the last of that kind of thing hundreds of years ago. I appeal to the Taoiseach and the Minister of State to raise this matter.

An Ceann Comhairle

I refer to the comments made about Deputy Boyd Barrett. Were the comments made directly by the Deputy, I would have considered them problematic. However, he was referring to a poster that was displayed at an event recently.

Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Deputy Helen McEntee)

As the Taoiseach indicated, I will address the other issues on the agenda of the European Council this week, including the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, innovation and digital, and the external relations items. We are making statements today, but next week Deputies will have the opportunity to ask questions on many of these issues.

The European Commission has now published detailed proposals for all headings under the next multi-annual financial framework. These were discussed at a lunch with Commissioner Oettinger at the General Affairs Council yesterday in Luxembourg, which I attended. At the meeting I set out clearly the importance we attach to maintaining support for well-functioning programmes, including the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and outlined that this is an absolute priority for us as a country. I also emphasised the importance of cohesion funding, especially for less developed member states, in the context of knowing how important it was to Ireland, as an earlier member of the European Union, and how important it is to the development of newer members.

The Government welcomes the continued emphasis on other policies which function well, such as ERASMUS+, the framework programme for research and innovation, the PEACE and INTERREG programmes, which we know are integral to many community groups and organisations in the North, and the EU's global instruments. New programmes, such as the proposed digital Europe programme, will be examined positively.

As the House will recognise, these proposals come at a time of great change for the EU. In the face of a range of new priorities, including climate change, migration, and security, and the departure of the UK - an issue which has been raised several times today - it is important that the EU budget remains relevant for us all. As the Taoiseach has said, we are open to a larger budget where there is demonstrable added value.

On Thursday, the European Council will consider whether agreement can be found on the MFF as a whole before the European Parliament rises in May 2019. This is an ambitious timetable, but we are open to engaging with it. We are prepared to work constructively for agreement and we can agree to do this at an accelerated pace if necessary, and if that is the decision that is taken.

Discussions on innovation and digital issues at the European Council this week will build on the exchanges at the leaders’ agenda meeting which happened in Sofia last month. Completing the digital Single Market, DSM, strategy is an absolute priority for Ireland. We have worked closely with the European Commission, the European Parliament and other member states to deliver outcomes which are pro-trade, pro-enterprise and pro-innovation. A fully developed DSM that removes unnecessary barriers to doing business digitally and across borders will present significant opportunities for Irish consumers, particularly Irish SMEs. I believe it will add over €300 million to the EU GDP overall, and so will provide significant advantages across the board. Up to the end of April, the Commission had put forward 28 legislative proposals. Of the 28 proposals 11 have already been completed and 17 are still being negotiated by the Council and are with the European Parliament and the Council for approval. We want to see as much progress as possible across all these files.

While the EU is rightly regarded as a global scientific powerhouse, it lags behind its global competitors, such as the USA, Japan and South Korea, when it is required to turn that knowledge into innovation. That is something we are trying to address and have to address going forward. The intention for the European Council this week is to give direction to EU efforts to encourage and reward disruptive innovation and to help boost the success of Europe in commercialising its world class research. This will deliver new jobs and new business opportunities, will enhance economic growth and will help to tackle societal issues across the EU. Leaders are expected to propose a European innovation council, which is something we supported in its current pilot phase and which we continue to believe is a good idea. The European Council is also likely to call for swift examination of the latest data package and to invite the Commission to work with member states on a co-ordinated plan on artificial intelligence, AI, building on its recent communication. A national AI strategy for Ireland is currently in development, in line with that. However, we welcome the recent communication on AI, which should contribute towards a comprehensive and integrated European policy and help to guide national policies on this important disruptive technology. Ireland is committed to engaging in the European AI Alliance and we are delighted that Professor Barry O’Sullivan from University College Cork, UCC, has been chosen to represent Ireland in the alliance expert group.

The European Council is also expected to discuss EU relations with Russia. It is no secret that these are under some considerable strain. We anticipate that leaders will approve the extension of economic sanctions for a further six months to 31 January 2019. These sanctions have been in place since 2014, in response to the undermining by Russia of the sovereignty of Ukraine, and direct involvement of Moscow in the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has claimed over 10,000 lives to date. While the duration of the economic restrictions is linked to the full implementation of the Minsk peace agreements, the EU has made it very clear on numerous occasions that they can be adjusted to take account of developments on the ground. Ireland firmly supports the continued imposition of sanctions, which aim to encourage Russia to support the implementation of the Minsk agreements and to ensure that the separatists respect the ceasefire commitments in place. The EU has remained united on this point.

The lack of progress in relation to the conflict in Ukraine, the recent Salisbury nerve agent poisoning, and the use of chemical weapons in Syria, as well as evidence of involvement in widespread misinformation and other hybrid activities, are all matters of grave concern. A further recent development relates to the downing of flight MH17 in 2014, in which 298 passengers and crew died, including one Irish national. In May, a joint investigation board found that the missile system involved in the downing belonged to Russia. UN Security Council Resolution 2166 calls on those responsible to be held accountable. From Ireland’s perspective, we support the European Council should it call on Russia to accept its responsibility.

I should emphasise that, along with our EU partners, we support selective engagement with Russia where it is clearly in our interests. We favour ongoing engagement with civil society and greater people-to-people contacts. However, against the backdrop of recent actions, we see no basis for easing the current restrictive measures or offering concessions to Russia.

As the Taoiseach said in his statement, migration remains a priority issue for the European Union and is likely to be a major focus at the European Council. It is worthwhile therefore to provide some further detail on the current situation and what we are expecting from the discussions later this week. The EU has adopted a broad range of measures over the past few years as part of its comprehensive response to mass migration. These have included greater engagement with countries of origin and transit to address the root causes of migration, including through the migration partnership framework; the emergency trust fund for Africa, to which Ireland has agreed to double its contribution this year, from €3 million to €6 million; agreeing a plan to relocate migrants from Italy and Greece across the Union; launching Operation Sophia to disrupt people smuggling in the Mediterranean; and providing continuous financial assistance to countries hosting large numbers of migrants.

Of course, mass migration is a very complex matter. I do not need to remind anyone in this House of that fact. It has been somewhat divisive within the Union. Some member states have already taken in large numbers of migrants, while others continue to resist accepting any. In these circumstances, consensus has not yet been reached on how best to reform the common European asylum system, and how to respond to situations such as that which arose with the Aquarius earlier this month. Much credit is due to the Bulgarian Presidency for its efforts to agree a compromise between member states that would strike a balance between responsibility and solidarity. If there is to be a breakthrough on this particular issue this week, there will have to be a compromise. However, it appears, based on conversations we had at the General Affairs Council yesterday and at separate meetings, that we are unfortunately not yet at that point.

Ireland is removed from the full effects of mass migration inflows because of our geographic location and because of Protocol 21, which means that we are not automatically party to many of the response measures which fall under Title V of the treaties. However, we have played an active and constructive role, including by opting into to the 2015 EU measures on relocation and resettlement. We admitted the full cohort of 1,022 people under the EU relocation programme which ended last September, and we have taken in 820 people under our resettlement commitments, with a further 220 expected to arrive in the coming months.

As part of the EU and UNHCR pledging exercise for 2018 and 2019, a total of 600 programme refugees will be resettled from Lebanon this year and in 2019. Deputies are aware that we also volunteered yesterday, after extensive discussions with the Maltese Government, to take in some of the migrants on board the MV Lifeline that is currently stranded off the coast of Malta.

We have also contributed to a series of fully crewed naval vessels to assist with humanitarian search-and-rescue efforts in the Mediterranean, working initially with the Italian Navy as part of Operation Pontus, during which 17,500 people were rescued. More recently, we contributed vessels to European Union Naval Force Mediterranean, EUNAVFOR Med, also known as Operation Sophia, the EU's operation to try to tackle people trafficking in the Mediterranean.

We have increased our humanitarian assistance to those affected by the crisis in Syria and elsewhere. Our view has always been that a comprehensive Europe-wide solution is necessary in order to respond effectively to the mass migration flows. As part of that, we need to strengthen the Union's external borders, work actively with our partners, show solidarity - including in Africa - and find a way to address the question internally. We also need to work with our European colleagues and fellow member states to try to deal with the root causes. As many Deputies have pointed out, most people travelling would prefer to stay at home if many of the reasons as a result of which they are travelling were dealt with. We need to focus on the root causes as well as everything else.

Part of the solution has to be a willingness of all EU member states to show solidarity and work together. I assure Members that Ireland will continue to be constructive in this area. It is a very complex issue and we will continue to plays active a role as we can as this progresses.

Deputy Lisa Chambers

My party leader has already comprehensively addressed the key Brexit issues in advance of the upcoming EU Council meeting. However, as Brexit spokesperson for my party, I will take the opportunity to make a few key points before I address other issues coming before the Council.

The forthcoming EU Council meeting was touted by the Government as a key milestone in the Brexit negotiations. More particularly, the Tánaiste had set it as a serious deadline to deliver what he deemed to be significant progress on the backstop and the Irish issues, or else. However, we were never quite sure what action the Tánaiste was going to take. We now know that no action will be taken and that the UK will succeed in progressing to October's Council meeting having failed to deliver any real, workable solutions to the Irish issues.

It is a fact, not an opinion, that the EU Council agenda has other major issues to deal with and that we are not the only show in town. It has been known for quite some time that the migration crisis will dominate discussions, despite what citizens may have been led to believe by the Government. In reply to parliamentary questions earlier, the Tánaiste said that to seek to stall the talks at this juncture would not be helpful. I agree. However, the only one suggesting that we might do so was the Tánaiste himself, two months ago. That was before it became clear to everyone that the June deadline had all but evaporated and that we were not going to see any real progress on the Irish issues. With just four months remaining for negotiations, I think it is fair to say, in the context of negotiations of this nature, that we are already in the 11th hour.

It is far from ideal that the backstop, which we were told was cast-iron, bulletproof and rock-solid by the Taoiseach last December, remains unresolved and without a legally binding text in place. Watching the chaos within the Tory Party and the lack of alternatives from the Labour Party, it is difficult to see how Westminster will ever put a proposal on the table that will satisfy hardline Brexiteers and solve the Irish issues. With this reality in mind, we are past the time when the Government must dispense with its wait-and-see approach and start putting solutions on the table because we simply cannot rely on the UK to do so.

Domestic preparedness remains far below the level that we would expect. At this late stage, it is truly concerning to see the low level of take-up of the various Brexit grants and supports available to the business community. This is in the context of a warning from EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker last week when he addressed a joint sitting of the Dáil and Seanad. He stated, "As the clock ticks down to Brexit, we must prepare for every eventuality, including no deal. This is neither a desired nor a likely outcome, but it is not an impossible one". I assume that this is what finally prompted the Taoiseach over the weekend to accept that a hard Brexit is possible, even if unlikely. Only now has Government started to prepare for the possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU next March. Preparations should have begun 18 months ago. We will now have to pursue these preparations with extra vigour in order to make up for the time lost due to Government inaction.

Despite many Government briefings and shiny policy papers - no one is suggesting that we have not had briefings from the Tánaiste and his Department - key questions remain unanswered. Every time I ask the tough questions at these briefings and about the papers, they are touted as providing all of the answers but they provide very little information. I can say without hesitation that when I emerge from said briefings, I am none the wiser as to what will happen to our country in the event of a hard Brexit or the position regarding the backstop, the withdrawal treaty and the transition period if the UK crashes out. This approach on the part of the Government provides very few real answers or assurances and acts only as a smoke screen, which is fast fading.

In the context of Brexit, it is clear that we have hoped and worked towards achieving considerable progress and a fully binding backstop by the June Council meeting. We will not have that now. Heading towards the October meeting, which is, in effect, the absolute deadline, we are supposed to have a withdrawal treaty in place, ready to go to the Council and the European Parliament for ratification by October. We still have many issues that remain outstanding. Heading into negotiations between June and October with that deadline looming puts us in a very vulnerable and precarious position as a member state.

Other member states also have concerns. They are concerned about future trade. The UK clearly wants to discuss future trade in conjunction with the backstop. We say we do not want that, but that is what we are heading towards. It is less than desirable that we have come to a situation where the rhetoric, spin and commentary from the Government from last December to June, up until the weekend just gone, was that we were seeking significant progress. Now we seem to accept that we will not have that. We do not know what we are going to get, and we do not have the assurances and certainty that we have rightly requested and demanded.

I now want to discuss the big issue which will dominate this month's Council meeting and which is undoubtedly a major concern for all member states. I refer to the migration crisis. The Taoiseach needs to bring this message loud and clear and enact it across Government. We need a pan-European approach to this issue. We cannot expect a few member states to shoulder the entire burden. Greece, Italy and Spain have dealt with a vast influx of people fleeing from their home countries. It is unfair and wrong that every member state is not doing its fair share. Doing one's fair share is what it means to be part of a community. We are not doing enough in Ireland to show solidarity with other member states, particularly those dealing with the largest numbers. We have taken in fewer than 2,000 migrants and we said yesterday that we would take a whopping 25 more people in. Really, that is just gesture politics; it does not put a dent in the overall numbers. We have to do a great deal more to show that we are serious about playing our part in dealing with this crisis.

On a basic level, as fellow human beings we have to show compassion for these poor people, who are fleeing the most horrific and unimaginable situations, with many of their friends and family dying in their attempts to make that perilous journey. I commend Chancellor Merkel on the leadership she showed two years ago when Germany opened its doors to vulnerable migrants who needed help and when other member states did not do so. She faced huge difficulties in keeping her country onside and united. She now faces huge difficulties in keeping her coalition Government together due to the migrant crisis. Without genuine and sincere backing from other member states and a commitment that we will all do our bit and share the burden, we could end up regressing and seeing the situation worsen for migrants coming into the EU.

What is happening in Libya is nothing short of the torture of migrants. They are being stripped of their basic human rights, with every last penny extorted from them and their families. Sums of thousands are often demanded for the promise of making that perilous crossing to Europe. The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of migrants remain detained in Libya. Those who make it to Italy tell of being extorted, beaten, tortured, raped, starved and forced to work for no pay. We have to question the provision of EU supports to Libyan authorities in the context of what we now know is happening. Our policies should never make a situation worse, and if we have evidence that this is the case, we must adapt. There is something very wrong in the world when a boat carrying 234 migrants - people - is stranded in international waters with nowhere to dock. I refer to the MV Lifeline. Is it not easy to make a decision to block these poor people from seeking refuge when those making the decisions do so, no doubt, from a place of comfort, privilege and safety? We must all check our privileges and count ourselves lucky that, despite the many social challenges we face, for the most part we live in a safe and wealthy country in which people have great opportunities. When we remember our country's history and that fact that, due to famine, our people had to leave to seek better lives elsewhere, we have to do all we can to help those less fortunate. The EU and all its member states, Ireland included, must play a strong role in responding to what is a terrible humanitarian crisis.

At this juncture, I want to single out our Defence Forces and our Naval Service for the amazing work they have done in helping to deal with this humanitarian crisis and limit the loss of life in the Mediterranean. They have worked closely with the Italian Armed Forces and saved so many lives in the process. The men and women of the Defence Forces once again responded to the call of duty and stepped up to the mark. We are also incredibly proud of the work they have done. This was done despite the huge challenges the Defence Forces face, such as those relating to low pay, poor working conditions and major issues in respect of recruitment and retention that have yet to be addressed despite many calls from the Defence Forces community and from Members of this House, including me.

Missions such as that in the Mediterranean remind us that persons serving in our Defence Forces are not public servants in the ordinary meaning. Their job is specialised, dangerous and seriously demanding. In addition, it limits their rights as workers.

That should be recognised in the context of pay and conditions. I urge the Government to consider this in the context of pay talks and the upcoming budget and seriously address the shortcomings and failures and look after those serving in our Defence Forces. We have no problem requesting that they respond to a humanitarian crisis, and they will always do so. We have no problem requesting that they respond to severe weather conditions and difficulties in our own country. There is no doubt we will have no problem in requesting that they scale up and come to the fore, if needed, in the event of a hard Brexit where our international waters and our boundaries will change. If we expect them to do this, we have to pay them properly but we do not do so. The Defences Forces are haemorrhaging people. If asked, they will do what they can but one cannot get blood from a stone. It is high time the Minister of State realised he is at the helm of what is a sinking organisation. The Taoiseach mentioned PESCO in his contribution. We need a properly resourced and fully functioning Defence Force to participate in PESCO. While many positive programmes are available to us, unless we get our own house in order, we will not be able to avail of them.

The situation in Hungary, where it is now an offence for citizens to help an asylum seeker or migrant, is outrageous and must be condemned by the Government. I trust, and I ask, that the Taoiseach and the Minister of State will raise this at the Council meeting with their counterparts and seek an EU response to such an inhumane and cruel law. It opposes every value on which the EU was founded. It goes against everything we believe in, in terms of basic human rights and dignity for people, and it cannot be permitted to persist in any member state.

Deputy David Cullinane

Following the previous statements in advance of a Council meeting, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach promised we would see real and significant progress at this summit in June on Brexit, the Irish issues associated with Brexit and the December and March agreements, which in the past were considered to be cast-iron guarantees. The benchmark set for achievement and delivery at this summit was not set by those of us in opposition. We want to make sure we get the best outcome for Ireland, and we would have wanted to see real and substantial progress well in advance of June, but this date for progress was set by the Government, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

The entire approach of the Government to the Article 50 negotiations and the ongoing talks between Britain and the EU in respect of the future relationship between Britain and Europe is that we decouple the Irish issues from the wider issue of that relationship and trade issues between those two blocs. It was important this was done because we are all still trying to avoid ending up in October with a scenario where huge pressure will be put on the Government in respect of some potential deal that may be a bad deal for Ireland or may be just an okay deal, but not the deal we were promised and not the deal we need to avoid any hardening of the Border, to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to protect citizens' rights.

The benchmark set by the Government was not just with regard to decoupling the Irish issues from the wider relationship issues between Britain and the European Union; it was also to hold the British Government to account on the high-level principles and commitments it gave to avoid a hard border, and to protect the Good Friday Agreement in all it parts and the rights of EU citizens and Irish citizens who live in the North. Sadly, since then, we have not had any progress. We are not just saying this. Today the Taoiseach said that from the Government's perspective we have not seen any real and substantial progress. The Union in its statement that will be published tomorrow will clearly state there has been no real and substantial progress. What incentive is there for British Government to come to the table with serious proposals when every time a deadline is set and every time a deadline is made the British Government is simply allowed to walk away from its responsibilities? How can we have a cast-iron guarantee in December and then arrive in June with no real or substantial progress on any of the issues that were meant to be an insurance policy for the Irish people, whereby we would effectively have alignment with the rules of the Single Market, the internal market and the customs union on the island of Ireland to ensure no divergence in rules and standards, no hardening of the Border, absolute certainty for businesses either side of the Border and absolute certainty for citizens in terms of their rights?

The British Government has torn up our insurance policy, which is the backstop. We have no guarantees, apart from the common travel area, on citizens' rights. We have no guarantees from the British Government on how it will protect the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. We are wandering into a space where in October all the issues, including the Irish issues, will be in one big melting pot and there will be crisis talks from which something will emerge but not, unfortunately, what we were promised.

While my quarrel is directly with the British Government - and Teachta McDonald made the point that the fact the British Government made promises in December and seems to be resiling from them, or has not followed through should not be lost on people - we also have a responsibility to hold the Government to account. When the Government stated there had to be progress by June, that means there should have been progress, yet it has not happened. Everybody in the House has been supportive of the position that we get a good deal for Ireland, and has supported the approach of the EU and the Government to get there, but that strategy up to now has failed. It has failed the Irish people because we simply do not have the certainties that people need and, unfortunately, this is something to which the Government will have to face up. This means tough straight talking has to be done at the June summit by the Taoiseach to our European counterparts and the British Government that it is not good enough. We need to see progress well in advance of October or we will be in serious danger of having a bad Brexit for Ireland.

Deputy Seán Crowe

The European Council will have an important discussion on Brexit, and I echo the statements made by Teachtaí McDonald and Cullinane. However, Brexit will not be the only issue discussed. Migration and defence matters are also on the agenda and I will focus on the issue of migration. We have witnessed a worrying increase in racist and fascist sentiments in Europe regarding migrants and refugees. It was interesting that most Opposition speakers have commented on this in the debate. The world is facing an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises with wars, hunger and oppression devastating many parts of the globe. The unequal economic model that many European countries enforce on the global south has created corruption, poverty, inequality and environmental disasters, as have their military interventions and arms sales to despotic dictators.

World refugee day was 20 June, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the total number of refugees worldwide is now 68.5 million. No one becomes a refugee by choice but the rest of us have a choice about how we help people who have been forced to do just that. Europe likes to pride itself on its human rights, but the EU is currently pushing back vulnerable refugees looking for sanctuary. It is wrong on so many levels and a gross violation of human rights.

The new government in Italy, which includes the far right, is refusing to let ships full of refugees dock and has stated it intends to carry out a census of the Roma population in Italy. Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust 70 years ago, when Roma, Jews, other minorities and trade unionists were systematically cut off, separated, dehumanised and subject to genocide?

The EU has made a deal with the oppressive regime in Turkey to ensure the authorities keep vulnerable refugees in the country, where many of their human rights will, undoubtedly, be violated. It is also supporting the Libyan coastguard, which is another theme mentioned by all speakers. It is basically an armed militia that pushes boats of vulnerable refugees back to Libya, where they will be robbed and detained in overcrowded jails run by armed militia.

They will be beaten, tortured and raped. These incidents have all been documented. Many of the people will be disappeared into the system and we do not know where they will go. Many will probably be killed and others will be sold as slaves at public auctions. This is what we are pushing people back to and it has all been documented and photographed, so nobody can say they did not know about it.

The Taoiseach yesterday stated he was proud of the Irish Navy, which is working with the Libyan coastguard. I deeply regret that we are supporting this force, which is complicit in horrific human rights abuses. European countries, bar a few notable exceptions, need to rethink fundamentally their refugee policies and create a blueprint for responding to refugees' needs that respects human rights, human dignity and the right to claim sanctuary in Europe. We need to create more safe legal routes for refugees to gain sanctuary in Ireland and Europe. Trying to block refugees from getting sanctuary in the EU is a violation of international law and Ireland should oppose attempts to imprison refugees in war-torn countries like Libya.

There will be mention of defence, PESCO and so on. Our direction is wrong and we are being forced to spend more money on defence. I have no difficulty spending money on the wages of the Defence Forces but the idea of quadrupling the spend on defence facilities and armies while people are lying on the streets or while we have a broken health service is fundamentally wrong. It also undermines our neutrality.

Deputy Thomas P. Broughan

I am delighted to have a brief opportunity to contribute to the debate. The next meeting of the European Council will take place in Brussels tomorrow and Friday, where there will be discussions on migration, including reform of the Common European Asylum System, CEAS, the economy and multi-annual financial framework, PESCO and co-operation with NATO, and, most important for us, Brexit. On Sunday last, 16 of the 28 EU leaders held a mini-summit hosted by the Commission on the migration crisis. We have noted the fallout between the Council and the Commission regarding the organisation of that summit. It is clear that migration will be one of the most contentious issues on which to find consensus during the summit. A pan-European approach to migration is essential, particularly as we think of people who have died trying to cross into Europe because they wanted to migrate here.

We have just passed the second anniversary of the shock Brexit vote of 23 June 2016 and the clock is ticking on tense negotiations. I commend Dublin City University, DCU, on establishing the DCU Brexit Institute and producing and publishing its report, Two Years Since the Brexit Referendum. I received a copy earlier this week and I am sure the Minister has also had an opportunity to have a look at it. This is the only such institute in Ireland and was the first European one set up to examine Brexit challenges. The report calls the upcoming Council meeting "crucial". The Brexit section of the European Commission’s website tells us that Mr. Michel Barnier will present the current status of the negotiations to the European Council and Parliament this week. With only nine months left until the official exit date of 29 March 2019 and just three months to finalise this agreement, there is significant work to be done by October. Yesterday, the UK completed its withdrawal Bill, which repeals its European Communities Act 1972. As I understand it, the UK is also planning a withdrawal and implementation Bill following any agreement with the European Union.

The so-called backstop agreement states that "in the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment" with the Single Market to protect and maintain the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The UK Cabinet rejected the British Prime Minister's suggestions that regulatory alignment would remain between the whole of the UK and the EU pre-2020. Mr. Alexander Stubb, who was the Finnish Prime Minister from 2014 to 2015, recently reflected on the BBC on how crucial EU decisions are often made at the last possible moment and the Brexit negotiation seems to be typical in this regard. There is growing unease among our constituents about the lethargic way the Government is handling Ireland's approach to perhaps the most crucial event in our history since the Second World War. The presence in this Chamber last week of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, along with Mr. Barnier and Commissioner Phil Hogan in the Gallery, demonstrated once again how dependent the Government is on the goodwill of our 26 EU partners.

The growing chorus of concern from British and EU industrial and trade union leaders about a bad deal Brexit or a no-deal Brexit shows how even more vulnerable the economy will be in such circumstances. For many constituents, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach seem often to be merely spectators in their engagement with the UK Tory regime and with the EU ministerial colleagues. In effect, that will probably be evident again this week. There should be total focus on the crucial issues of preventing a border re-emerging in our country and the massive importance of the UK market for Irish agriculture, services and industry but it still seems to be lacking in the current Government’s interactions with the UK and our EU partners and with public opinion throughout the continent.

Despite President Juncker’s shout of "Yes" to my colleague in reply to Deputy Boyd Barrett as to whether the EU would refute any establishment of an EU border on this island, people remain concerned that Ireland could end up being shafted at the conclusion of these negotiations, perhaps at some resolution in October or at the last minute in February or March next year, as is often the EU's way. I note the Irish Times journalist, Mr. Stephen Collins, reported yesterday from the Danube delta that our Romanian fellow EU citizens were enthusiastic supporters of Ireland’s EU-Brexit stance. As evidenced by his recent article on the UK dynasty and Queen Victoria, commentators like Mr. Collins seem to live in a parallel universe. The harsh reality is that the larger EU states, led by Germany and France, will try to reach an accommodation with the UK that somehow keeps the UK in a multispeed EU orbit. Any fallout from such an agreement that disadvantages the Irish people, North and South, will just be seen as necessary and unfortunate collateral damage. It is a fear that citizens have.

This is why the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach need to be much more vocal in setting out a future EU and UK relationship that protects Irish interests. It is not good enough for the Taoiseach to say he cannot advise the British Prime Minister where to go. We have our interests that must be relentlessly and remorselessly placed in front of the British. Despite the so-called backstop agreement, this Government has failed to set out the necessary implementation of such a vision on the spurious grounds that Mr. Juncker and Mr. Barnier will somehow protect us.

Last month, during in a previous debate, I spoke about the French President Emmanuel Macron's vision for the future of Europe. In his programme, outlined in his book, Revolution, and his speech in the Sorbonne last September, he spoke about his wish for the sovereignty of the historic French republic of 1789 to be transferred to a new republic of Europe, led by France and Germany. His vision seems to be taking some strides forward, with both countries coming together to propose a eurozone budget and the reform of the European Monetary Union. On 19 June, Mr. Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced their collaboration on a eurozone budget. Yesterday, the French Finance Minister, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, told us this Franco-German proposal is "not negotiable for France." Although Ireland has engaged with Macron's vision - at least I have heard the Taoiseach saying he would engage with it - Mr. Le Maire has criticised the 12 countries, of which Ireland is one, which have voiced opposition to such proposals. He said that we have "expressed an interest in a budget and have reservations regarding fiscal convergence." That is, of course, putting it mildly. The tactics of calling these proposals non-negotiable days before the Council's meeting is extremely unhelpful but something that is becoming evident, unfortunately, in Macron’s attitude towards the EU.

The EU budgetary proposals were agreed in a meeting in Meseberg recently and put forward fiscal plans to assist countries entering recession, as well as the use of the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, to provide a system of loans for countries. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, has repeatedly expressed concerns over the proposed Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, CCCTB, and plans for an EU digital tax. A recent American study identified Ireland as the largest tax haven in the world and the critique of the Irish corporation tax system have been widely disseminated in the EU. Professor Seamus Coffey of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has identified our corporation tax regime as relatively stable to 2020 but clearly developments in the wake of Mr. Macron’s plans for a federal EU would have a major impact on the State's finances going into the 2020s. The fact remains that most Irish people do not share Mr. Macron’s vision and would prefer the EU to continue as a confederation of nation states.

Following Brexit, our people may be faced with a further profound historic choice of whether to progress down the Macron road or to remain with states like Denmark and Sweden in an outer orbit of a multispeed Europe.

We cannot allow this terrible pressure of the Brexit negotiation. I appreciate the pressure the Government is under in this regard. The Government will be judged by this in the forthcoming general election, whenever it happens. It would be reprehensible to use the pressure of Brexit as a lever to rush us into a federal European state dominated by Germany, France, Spain and Italy, despite the comments of the new Italian Government.

During our most recent debate on European affairs, I drew attention to our record as a net contributor for the past five years. We are one of only nine net contributors among the 28 member states, which is striking. The EU budget between 2021 and 2027 totals €1.27 trillion or 1.1% of gross national income. The EU Commissioner, Mr. Hogan, wanted a higher percentage. Anyway, it means that a major contribution is being made by this country year in, year out towards the maintenance of the EU. We must ensure this organisation to which we contribute so much is au fait with our needs and that emerging from Brexit we will not be placed in a terribly disadvantaged situation.

Last year, I was one of 45 Deputies who voted against the Government proposal to join the PESCO. I remain deeply opposed to any attempt to engage Ireland in an EU army. We have heard of Macron's military force, the European intervention initiative, which, apparently, will include Britain.

I wish to refer briefly to the migration crisis. The new Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, recently stoked anti-immigration rhetoric by turning away a migrant ship carrying 629 people. Malta then refused the ship but made a separate decision to accept the ship. I appreciate our Government's action in this regard. Clearly, we need a pan-European approach to migration that is fair to everyone.

I appreciate being able to make these comments, in particular on Brexit, which is now at such a crucial point in the negotiations.

Deputy Gino Kenny

I welcome the news from the Tánaiste today that the Government has given extra funding to the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. I understand Ireland will give €250,000. I am raising the issue because UNRWA has stated that it is experiencing its worst funding crisis of the past 70 years. The agency was set up because of Israel's expulsion of Palestinian people from Palestine. Many Palestinian refugees are in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Jordan. It is welcome that the Government has tried to address some of the shortfall. There is a shortfall because Donald Trump's Administration has withdrawn 80% of the funding. It is small beer compared to the funding the US gives Israel, but it will have profound effects on the many Palestinians in refugee camps. These people rely on the funding for schools and so on. The head of the agency says that if the funding is not met by other donors, people will suffer. It is probably in the interests of the Israeli Government that Palestinians suffer even more. This is about collective punishment by another means on the part of the American Administration, including Mr. Trump. He is probably the greatest Zionist of them all.

I am unsure if the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach will attend the European Council but I hope he will raise the issue. One startling aspect of the crisis in Palestine is the UN reckons that in 2020, one and a half years from now, the Gaza Strip, where 1.2 million people live, will become unliveable. That will have profound effects for those people.

As Deputies and citizens of this country, we have always had a pro-Palestinian view. We saw Palestinian people being driven out of their homes and discriminated against on a daily basis. The general tone of this State and of the people who live here is pro-Palestinian.

It is welcome that the Government has granted a further €250,000. That brings our contribution up to €6 million to the fund. However, the crisis will continue. We have run out of adjectives to describe what Donald Trump is about. He is a maniac who will destroy many of the people who he believes are against his policy. Our solidarity is always with the Palestinian people. I welcome the new funding. I call on the Minister of State to raise the matter at the European Council during the week.

Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (Deputy Paul Kehoe)

I thank everyone who contributed to this debate on what will be an important and wide-ranging meeting of the European Council over the next two days.

While Brexit is clearly the priority for Ireland, migration is a crucial issue for the Union as a whole, and it is likely to be a major focus at the meeting. As the Taoiseach stated, we will seek to continue to play a constructive role in the discussions on this issue and to make a positive contribution. We volunteered yesterday to take in some of the migrants on board the MV Lifeline that is currently stranded off the coast of Malta.

I pay tribute to the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann, specifically those in our Naval Service, whose actions have saved more than 17,500 lives in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years. They continue to perform vital functions as part of Operation Sophia. I commend them on their professionalism and service to our great country.

The European Council is expected to take decisions on strengthening external border controls and working with countries of origin and transit, with only incremental progress likely at this stage on reform of the common European asylum system.

We anticipate unity on jobs, growth and competitiveness around the Commission's proposed responses to the US steel and aluminium tariffs. Ireland fully subscribes to the EU position that these tariffs are unjustified and in conflict with WTO rules.

Digital taxation may be discussed. We strongly agree that all companies should pay their taxes. However, the challenges of taxation in a globalised digital world are such that only the widest international response is likely to be effective.

The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Helen McEntee, has outlined our approach to the multi-annual financial framework. We want continued support for the programmes that work well and deliver European added value, including the CAP and Cohesion Funds. At the same time, we are open to spending new money on new priorities if there is a clear rationale for doing so at European level.

Discussions at the European Council on the issues within my areas of responsibility, namely, security and defence, will provide a welcome opportunity to review progress across a number of fronts. As on previous occasions, the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Stoltenberg, will have the opportunity to address the European Council. He is likely to emphasise the importance of complementarity between the EU and NATO and the need for strong European defence co-operation.

Ireland is one of six member states that are not members of NATO. This, along with our military neutrality, is a foreign policy strength. It enhances our position as an honest broker and as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon with UNIFIL and UNDOF as well as all our missions overseas. This does not mean we do not support appropriate co-operation with NATO. Such co-operation is set out in the EU global strategy and is welcome. I anticipate there will be a call for a new joint declaration by the President of the Council, the President of the Commission and the Secretary General of NATO on EU-NATO co-operation to update on progress since the declaration in 2016.

Work has moved forward within the EU with the launch of PESCO. Ireland is a founder member and is participating in two projects, namely, a centre of excellence for EU military training missions and the upgrade of maritime surveillance systems.

PESCO provides a mechanism through which crisis management capabilities can be developed by member states in support of Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP, operations. Participation in PESCO in no way changes our policy of military neutrality, contrary to what some Members of this House may think. We will continue to make our distinctive contribution, based on our own traditions and strengths. Work is also ongoing on a range of other issues including military mobility and funding for capability development, including a proposal to establish the European defence fund, with a view to the next multi-annual financial framework and further development of the civilian CSDP. We will continue to engage constructively with our EU partners on these proposals. As Deputies are aware, the EU 27 leaders, meeting in Article 50 format on Friday morning, will discuss Brexit. As the Taoiseach has said, the lack of progress in the negotiations on the withdrawal agreement is very disappointing for all. There is now an urgent need to intensify efforts if we are to conclude the agreement and have it operational by the time the UK leaves.

The European Council is likely to send a clear message to the UK that these negotiations can only progress as long as all commitments undertaken so far are respected in full. Without a backstop, there will be no withdrawal agreement and therefore no transition arrangements. While we hope that the future relationship between the EU and the UK will be as close, comprehensive and ambitious as possible, the Government continues to plan for the full range of scenarios. It is likely that the European Council will urge all member states to do the same.

The Taoiseach will report back to the Dáil next week on the outcome of the European Council meeting which he will attend tomorrow and on Friday.

Sitting suspended at 4.02 p.m. and resumed at 5.02 p.m.

Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday, 27 Jun 2018

European Council: Statements

Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 27 Jun 2018