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Taoiseach's Communications

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 January 2022

Tuesday, 25 January 2022

Questions (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)

Seán Haughey

Question:

20. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach if he has spoken to the new German Chancellor. [61488/21]

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Brendan Smith

Question:

21. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he has been in contact with the new Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. [61601/21]

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Seán Haughey

Question:

22. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach if he has had recent discussions with the President of the European Commission. [61739/21]

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Brendan Smith

Question:

23. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if has been in contact recently with the President of the European Commission. [61991/21]

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Cian O'Callaghan

Question:

24. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he has spoken to the new German Chancellor. [63549/21]

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Ruairí Ó Murchú

Question:

25. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent meeting of the European Council. [2231/22]

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Alan Kelly

Question:

26. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he has spoken with the new German Chancellor. [3309/22]

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Peadar Tóibín

Question:

27. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will report on recent correspondence he has had with the new President of the European Parliament. [3317/22]

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Mick Barry

Question:

28. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he has had recent discussions with the President of the European Commission. [3330/22]

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Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

29. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent meeting of the European Council. [3610/22]

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Paul Murphy

Question:

30. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent meeting of the European Council. [3613/22]

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Mick Barry

Question:

31. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent meeting of the European Council. [3616/22]

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Oral answers (35 contributions)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 31, inclusive, together.

As the House will be aware, Chancellor Olaf Scholz took up his office on 8 December as the head of the new German coalition Government. Ireland and Germany are close partners and friends, and I was therefore pleased to have the opportunity to talk to him by phone on 1 December, prior to his formal appointment. I also subsequently wrote to congratulate him and to express my commitment to working with him on shared challenges the EU faces in the period ahead.

In our call, we discussed some of those challenges, including Covid-19. We noted the importance both of our Governments attach to climate action and the need to achieve a green transition. I also took the opportunity to brief him on the importance of the Northern Ireland protocol as a means of mitigating the negative consequences of Brexit and protecting the Good Friday Agreement. I expressed our appreciation for the solidarity the previous German Government had offered Ireland throughout the negotiations on Brexit, and he was very clear to me this would continue under the new Administration.

I had the opportunity to meet him in person, along with other European leaders, at the meeting of the European Council on 15 to 16 December. Our meeting had a wide agenda, including Covid-19, crisis management and resilience, energy prices, security and defence, migration and a number of external issues, including Belarus, Ukraine, our southern neighbourhood and Ethiopia. Ahead of our meeting, the EU 27 leaders attended an eastern partnership summit, which was also attended by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Belarus has suspended its participation in the partnership, and at our meeting we left a symbolic empty chair, which we hope will be filled by a representative of a democratically elected government in Belarus in the near future.

I also attended a euro summit on 16 December at which we heard the economic assessment of the President of the European Central Bank, ECB, Ms Christine Lagarde, and the president of the Eurogroup, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. We also considered progress on banking union and capital markets union.

I most recently met the President of the European Commission at the meeting of the European Council. The Commission has played an important role in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, including in relation to vaccines, and I am in regular contact with the President by phone on this and other matters.

I wrote to the newly elected President of the European Parliament, Ms Roberta Metsola, this week to congratulate her on her election and I look forward to working with her on the challenges Europe faces. I also welcomed her tribute to victims of gender-based violence, including Ashling Murphy, which resonated so strongly with everybody here.

It is a fact there is a Franco-German axis at the heart of the EU project, which all member states, including small ones like Ireland, recognise. There is always momentum coming from that axis for further European integration, which has been given a new impetus during the current French Presidency of the EU. For many reasons, Germany is important for Ireland and Ireland is a friend of Germany. Germany is Ireland's largest market in the eurozone, for example. Mr. Olaf Scholz is Germany's new centre-left Chancellor. I hope the Taoiseach will be able to develop a good relationship with him. The Chancellor has a significant issue to deal with just now, that being the Ukrainian crisis and the threat of war on Germany's doorstep. It seems Chancellor Scholz has adopted a more critical, robust and pragmatic policy towards Russia. Now he has to decide whether to issue an operating permit for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that Ireland and the EU support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity? Does he believe the EU should unite in solidarity with Ukraine and that all member states should, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, said, support the most comprehensive and severe range of sanctions and restrictions on Russia in many decades should Russia invade Ukraine? Does the Taoiseach agree every effort should be made to bring about a negotiated settlement of this dispute and avoid a military confrontation in the region and that this would be far more preferable to military action by Russia and NATO-led countries?

As the Taoiseach is well aware, since 2016, the European Commission and individual member states of the European Union have been supportive of Ireland's interests in the Brexit negotiations. Some difficulties have emerged regarding the operation of the protocol and concerns have been expressed by the British Government, but I hope whatever obstacles exist can be removed. From speaking to my constituents as well as to people north of my home area, businesses there want to ensure there are no impediments to trade or to people going about their daily business. We have seen the transformation that has happened since 1998 with the development of the all-island economy.

I have been engaging with members of the Ukrainian community in my constituency. They have expressed to me the concerns they are hearing from their people at home. They are very concerned about a possible invasion by Russia and are anxious the EU sends a clear message that, if Russia takes such action, severe sanctions will be put in place. They also ask that we clearly express our concern about military training in the Atlantic. Will the Taoiseach assure the House that Ireland will raise these critical issues at Security Council level in the UN?

We all agree we are dealing with a ratcheting-up of the situation by the Russians. In the Taoiseach's interactions at the European Council but also in any other engagement he may have had, be it with the Commission or ambassadors, what has been the Irish Government's position on the matter? What conversations is the Taoiseach having? To some degree, people are wondering where the EU stands on this question. I accept this situation is the outworking of a serious geopolitical play between NATO and the Russians.

We all know Ireland has certain radar system failings. There is a possibility that Russian operations, which should not be undertaken, will be carried out off Cork. Mr. Tom Clonan has spoken about the need for Ireland to build up our peacekeeping capacity. In saying that, we all accept we are not going to war with Russia, but this is an incredibly serious situation that needs to be resolved. What conversations has the Taoiseach had, particularly at EU level?

The issue of inflation in the State cannot be overestimated. There is a massive problem with prices increasing across the State, especially for fuel. Farmers are being hit significantly by large increases in nitrogen and input costs. The Taoiseach has indicated in a number of replies that some of that price pressure is coming from the actions of Russia and other external factors we cannot control. He has also stated he does not believe we can get a derogation on VAT to ameliorate the damage being caused by price increases, but has he asked the new President of the European Parliament? Has he requested a derogation? What have been his efforts to push for that? Is it the case the Government is putting its hands up, surrendering and saying it cannot do any more, or is it the case we have an active Government that is fighting for the needs of citizens, including farmers and families, throughout the country in seeking a derogation?

Vladimir Putin is a thug and autocrat who has done very nasty things recently to working people in Kazakhstan, has waged a bloody war in Chechnya and is now flexing his muscles in Ukraine, so of course we should condemn what Russia is doing, but why is there no condemnation from a country that is supposed to be neutral of a clear agenda by NATO to expand eastwards and escalate military tensions with Russia? Why does the Government correctly condemn Russian military exercises in Irish waters but allow the US military to use Shannon Airport every single day of the week to prosecute wars across the world and kidnap and torture people in its rendition programme? We do not condemn that. Why is the Government saying nothing about the fact NATO wrote to EU foreign ministers before Christmas asking them to increase military expenditure and align more closely with the NATO military alliance, which is a US-led and aggressive military alliance? Neutrality means not taking sides in dangerous conflicts and game-playing between major imperial powers.

At the start of January, there was a mass movement in Kazakhstan, an uprising triggered by an increase in fuel prices. The move started with a strike of oil workers in Zhanaozen and became widespread general strikes and protests across much of the country. It was put down with incredible brutality by an incredibly brutal dictatorship. The military and police were given orders to shoot without warning. They did so, killing well over 160 protestors. More than 8,000 people were arrested and many remain in prison. It was horrific brutality.

The response of the European Union was to call on protestors to avoid any incitement of violence and to make a similar call on authorities - in other words, to blame both sides. Why? The reason is that the European Union is interested in protecting western oil interests because the Kazakh regime is happy for western as well as Russian oil interests to exploit the massive natural resources that exist there. I call on the Irish Government and the Taoiseach to condemn what happened in Kazakhstan and to condemn the Kazakhstan dictatorship and the brutal repression of the protestors.

I was intrigued by Deputy Ó Murchú's comments. He said we all agree that Russia is ratcheting things up. I do not know what that means. To be fair-----

Obviously, what Russia is about to do off the coast of Cork is fairly ratcheting things up.

In fairness to Deputy-----

I think that is a fair commentary.

I just note the difference in language between Deputy Ó Murchú and Deputies Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy, who, to be fair, have called out Russian activity. I do not hear the same sentiments from Sinn Féin's benches at all for whatever reason.

Vladimir Putin is bad and what the Russians are doing is absolutely disgraceful. Is that clear enough?

Yes, that is good. Good man. I got that out of the Deputy.

Deputy Haughey spoke about the Franco-German axis and the more pragmatic approach being adopted by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Ireland accepts Ukrainian territorial integrity. As I said earlier, our principles in our approach to the Russian-Ukrainian situation involve, first of all, acceptance of and adherence to that fundamental, rules-based international order. That is the essence of Ireland's independent foreign policy. We are not politically neutral but we are militarily neutral. It is an important distinction. We are members of the European Union. We work with our European Union colleagues on rules-based multilateral approaches to international disputes. We want a diplomatic resolution to this. We want this de-escalated. We do not believe it necessitates the massing of so many hundreds of thousands of troops. It does not necessitate a war or an invasion or the violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity. That is clear. Holding military exercises in international waters off our coast is not welcome and not helpful. There is an ecological issue here, which Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan has highlighted, in that there are other implications for marine life, biodiversity and so on that may flow from the Russian military exercises off the west coast. Ireland, along with its EU colleagues, will support comprehensive sanctions if an invasion takes place. I earnestly hope it does not. If the de-escalation of the aggression could happen, I think the world would breathe a collective sigh of relief. The world is trying to come through Covid-19 and all its implications, and now to go through another crisis, which could occur as a result of an invasion, would, I think, be very difficult for the world as a whole to deal with.

The European Union Commission has been very supportive on Brexit, and I hear what Deputy Brendan Smith has said. Ireland will play its part at the UN Security Council as a voice for peace, a voice for reason and a voice for the de-escalation of violence.

I have responded to Deputy Ó Murchú's points about the radar and so on. We have to be realistic and proportionate about the issues here. Ireland is not in the league of the big powers militarily and never will be. There are issues. The defence commission we established will come forward shortly with a view to the more medium-term strategy for the building up of our Defence Forces into the future and according to our needs as a country.

Deputy Tóibín raised the issue of inflation, which has been a constant theme today. It is very clear to us in terms of the VAT issue, but we do think there are other ways. We have already taken measures in the budget and-----

Did the Government ask the European Union?

The President of the European Parliament does not have an executive function in this regard.

I refer to the European Union in general.

We know the rules-----

Change the rules.

-----and I think it would be a very dangerous move in some respects. I think there are other ways to reduce the impact of this on people. That is the key point.

I think I have dealt with Deputy Boyd Barrett's points.

We are a country with a policy of military neutrality, and that is scrupulously observed by us as a country. It is not inconsistent, by the way, with military neutrality that military aircraft of-----

Why no criticism of NATO?

I do not think NATO is being aggressive here. As for the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, there is a reality.

Is NATO not expanding eastwards when it is not static?

Countries eastwards have opted to join the European Union; many more want to do so.

What about Cuba, when it was the other way around?

How do you mean, what about Cuba? I have been to Cuba-----

Yes, and there is a blockade on Cuba-----

-----as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and as for the situation with Cuba, I would support-----

Tríd an gCathaoirleach, más é do thoil é, mar táimid ag rith as am.

I think we are running out of time for Cuba, you are saying to me, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. All right. I hear you.

What about Kazakhstan?

I think that what happened in Kazakhstan is absolutely wrong and shocking.

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