Results 161-180 of 46,345 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I agree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I said in my speech it will be before the end of the month.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Please accept my bona fides when I say it is still fluid. I am trying to get as many members as possible on board.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: First, I think there is a military operation under way in Rafah. There is a degree of semantics as to scale and so on. It is horrific that there is such a military operation under way. Gaza has been levelled. The destruction is absolutely shocking in terms of the destruction of schools, houses, universities and hospitals so the very essence of any society to live in any humane way. All...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We outlined the consequence of accountability is the first one, which is an important point we cannot lose sight of.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I appreciate the contribution Deputy Lawless has made. One of the most important points he made was a fundamental one, namely, that we cannot do all this on our own. In other words, enhancing our own military capability and interoperability cannot be done alone. We are in UNIFIL with the Polish military as part of the Irish-Polish battalion. There has to be interoperability. In other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I thought the first three questions were on defence matters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: First, on the draft of the briefing document, that may not meet the definitions others have. Since the Second World War, neutrality has always been an avoidance of participation in a military alliance or of joining one. In the context of one of the referendums, we inserted that we would not be part of one and entered into our Constitution that we would not be part of an EU defence pact...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Just hear me out for a second now. That was in the middle of the bush and that gave water on tap to 3,000 villagers. It was not on tap in their individual huts but in the square that serviced 3,000 people. A consequence of that was the girls did not have to lose time in school because it is the girls who traditionally go and collect the water. Now they can go to school as the water is on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes, it is a vast country, but what is happening in Mozambique?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes, but there is a war going on. I am not into militarisation of these countries but there has been a civil war there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Ireland played its role on the peace secretariat. We had two to three diplomats working on the peace secretariat. We had a member of our Defence Forces who oversaw the decommissioning of weaponry in Mozambique. One of the secrets of good Irish diplomacy and work is trying to bring peace to other parts of the world. We have real problems in Cabo Delgado, where there is violence from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We do not impose sanctions unilaterally. Trade is an EU function and together with our EU partners, we have imposed sanctions on settlers in the West Bank. We got agreement but it was difficult to get an agreement with 27 member states as one member state was holding out for quite some time. It was on 19 March that we adopted that agreement. We also placed sanctions on Hamas focused on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I would have to come back to the Deputy on the estimates in Israel. There are four or five citizens and about 30 dependants in Gaza at the moment. We have taken out about 100 between citizens and dependants. While I said we did take out the full 100, there has been a new channel opened up in terms of a private channel. However, we did facilitate those who came out of that channel with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I will get figures for the Deputy on the others.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes. For some time now, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the UAE, Egypt and Qatar have been working on an Arab peace initiative framework that would endeavour to be as comprehensive as possible, embracing Palestinian self-determination, a ceasefire in Gaza, guarantees to Israel's security, normalisation in terms of the Israeli-Saudi relationship and so on. Our officials were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is difficult and challenging. Israel does not appreciate or like the Irish position, to put it mildly. We have always been consistent in saying we are not anti-Israel or the Israeli people. However, we make our judgments and observations and take positions on this situation through the prism of international humanitarian law, the UN charter, and the need for a two-state solution and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes. They are extremely anxious. We underestimate the degree to which these countries see this as existential. When one meets the foreign ministers of these countries, it is a completely different narrative and expression to what one would see from ourselves or others. They are very worried that were Ukraine to fall, they would be next. We can already see threatening behaviour....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not members of NATO, and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not, in terms of our military neutrality. However, there is a clause of mutual solidarity in the European Union, which means we would support - in any way we can - such as the way we are supporting Ukraine right now. However, that has never been tested.