Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 June 2021
97. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has had any engagement with the Egyptian authorities in relation to the detention of Irish cargo following the recent blockage in the Suez Canal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33705/21]
View answerOn 23 March, the eyes of the world were on the Suez Canal in Egypt as the Ever Given cargo ship became stuck in the canal. It was stuck for six days and there was a backlog of 400 ships in the canal area. The ship was dislodged. A huge volume of cargo destined for Ireland is still detained on the ship. Is the Minister engaging with his counterparts in Egypt, via diplomatic channels, to ensure the cargo is released and brought back to Ireland?
I have a written reply but it is not much good to the Deputy, so I will talk off the cuff if that is okay. We have not had any representation on this issue, apart from Deputy Crowe. I am happy to be helpful on this issue, if we can, through our embassy in Cairo.
It is a good and active embassy. However, no company, stakeholder or interested party has reached out to us with a concern. A legal case is under way relating to cargo that was on the ship, the commercial interests around that and so on. We cannot interfere with that legal case and it needs to take its course, but if there are diplomatic issues that we can help with, I am open to doing so. Clearly, the Deputy probably knows more than I do about the specific frustrations and concerns of some Irish commercial interests linked to that cargo. If he wants to get in contact with the Department, we will see if we can be helpful. We cannot interfere with or influence a court decision in Egypt, but if there are appropriate diplomatic channels that we can use, we are certainly open to doing so.
I thank the Minister. He used the word "interfere". I would not ask him to interfere, but I would suggest that he make strong representations to his Egyptian counterpart. The dispute is with the vessel. In a lawsuit, the Suez Canal Authority is seeking $916 million in damages, including $300 million for loss of reputation. The obvious action is to decouple the authority's legal dispute with the vessel from the cargo. The cargo is destined for Rotterdam, Ireland and other places across Europe. It includes cargo of considerable value, although a great deal of that value has been lost. The ship should be decoupled from the cargo in the lawsuit, which is the point I would like the Minister to make to his counterpart in Egypt.
I have approached the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin and the Irish Embassy in Cairo. I do not want to bad-mouth them, but I have not heard much from either. I cannot get through to the embassy in Cairo. That does not bode well in itself, as there needs to be good phone answering on that end. I have not been able to deliver my message to date.
If there is a role for the embassy and diplomatic channels to be used, we will use them. I have a very good relationship with my Egyptian counterpart. Normally, we speak about Israel and Palestine and trying to take action on ceasefires, in which Egypt has significant involvement, particularly where they relate to Gaza.
The Deputy has raised this issue in the Chamber and sought a conversation with our embassy, but perhaps if he comes to my office, we will try to be as helpful as appropriate on the issues he has outlined.
Much of the cargo originated in Malaysia and elsewhere in south-east Asia. A considerable number of containers on board were destined for Ireland via transshipment through the Port of Rotterdam. I have spoken with many of the people who would have been receiving that cargo. They have cited problems with lost sales, raw materials that would have been used in component manufacturing in Ireland, and just-in-time products, whose value is lost if they are not on the sales shelf at the correct time. For example, there was half a container's worth of gloves, which are seasonal, valued at €250,000. The person who wanted to sell them had to procure a different shipment, increasing his costs to €500,000.
This issue requires engagement. The obvious approach is for the authority to decouple its legal argument with the ship from its argument with the cargo. Indeed, there is no dispute over the cargo. Release it. Give it to its rightful owners.
I do not want to speculate on the legal case or on whether decoupling is possible. There is a large amount of money involved and this is a high-profile legal case on the back of major disruptions that happened as a consequence of a ship going aground and blocking the Suez Canal for a sustained period.
There is an offer to work with the Deputy on this issue as appropriate, but I do not want to start making commitments that I cannot deliver on until we examine the detail. We can certainly raise the matter in the appropriate way. We cannot influence the outcome of a court case, but if there are appropriate conversations to be had with the Egyptian authorities, we can work on those.
