Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Berry asked the last question previously and I did not answer it. We are co-locating with the EU delegation. The EU delegation is responsible for the building and we sub-lease from it. I am not aware of it having been damaged, but I do not know for sure. We had some local staff there. That facility is not operating. Our team left some time ago, along with members of the EU delegation. The co-ordination across EU countries was quite successful. We were determined to stay for as long as we could, to give a clear signal to Ukraine that we wanted to stay with it, but I had to make decisions about the safety of our staff. We did that in consultation with other EU countries.

In response to Deputy Stanton, Global Ireland 2025 is not just about opening embassies and consulates, although that is what the focus seems to be. It is also about trade missions, culture, music and sport. It is basically about Ireland's capacity to imprint our influence in different parts of the world through all the different mechanisms and tools that we have, both online and in person, through multiple different strategies. In that regard, culture is a big sales point for Ireland. Anybody who knows the impact of Riverdance in China or U2 across South America will realise the incredible power of music, literature, dance and culture. We appointed new cultural officers in a number of locations, including London and New York. I think we appointed officers in Berlin and probably in Paris. We may not have done so yet but are in the process. We want to do more of that. A new Irish arts centre has opened in New York. It is a phenomenal success. It is one of the most visited cultural venues in New York. We invested much public money in that, along with the local authority there and other contributors. It is a way to guarantee an Irish presence in performance arts and the cultural elements of New York city, which is important.

Deputy Stanton mentioned online activity and branding. We have done a lot of work on it. When Deputy Cannon was Minister of State, a role which has been taken over by Deputy Colm Brophy, we did a lot to connect the diaspora with each other and us through online platforms. There has been much new thinking and investment in that in recent years, which has been successful. In the last two years, when we were not able to travel for St. Patrick's Day, we focused on a massive online campaign, which had an extraordinary reach. It reached tens of millions of people. This year, I am glad to say that we will do both, both online and in person. Ironically, I will be one of the few people staying home on St. Patrick's Day this year. I will probably be the only Minister who will not travel, but I am not short of travel opportunities in my job, so I am happy to do that.

Deputy Brady asked a series of questions. I do not want to bring the Brexit debate into Ukraine. The UK has made its decision about Brexit. We respect that. We need to work through some of these issues with it with regard to the implementation of the protocol in Northern Ireland and how we do that in a way that tries to respond to the genuine concerns that have been raised. The UK's approach to Ukrainian refugees is different from the rest of the Continent of Europe. Last time I checked, although it may have changed, it still requires some form of visa. It is trying to facilitate family reunification for people from Ukraine.

That is quite a different approach from what we have, which is effectively an open-door policy. It will put our systems under a lot of pressure but it is the right thing to do. There is a complication arising from that because we share a common travel area with the UK. As it is outside the Schengen area, there have been some discussions on the matter between the Department of Justice and the UK Home Secretary. From our perspective, the humanitarian response is the priority and everything else must come second to that. It is also worth pointing out that under common travel area rules, a non-Irish person in Ireland does not have the same facilitation as Irish people have. That applies to Ukrainians who come to Ireland in the same way that it apples to many other non-Irish citizens. It is important to say that.

Regarding Northern Ireland, I understand there have been some conversations between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and its counterpart in Northern Ireland. Ultimately, however, I suspect visa policy for the UK will be determined in London and not Belfast. We will just have to live with and manage two different approaches to the humanitarian response for Ukrainian refugees.

On Palestine, let me be clear that we support and fund both Al-Haq and Addameer. They are two NGOs that have been listed by the Israeli Government as being active terrorist groups or as supporting terrorism. We think that is both inaccurate and a mistake. That is our position. I am certainly open to persuasion if there is evidence to suggest otherwise but I have not seen any, and I have asked for it. As far as I am concerned, we have good checks and balances for who we spend money with and what they do with it. I have no reason to believe either Al-Haq or Addameer are spending Irish money inappropriately and certainly none to believe either is promoting violence or terrorism. If I see such evidence, I will act on it without delay, but I have not seen it. We owe it to these organisations to maintain our relationship in the absence of such evidence, which I am told exists but which I have not seen. We also continue to talk to the European Commission about those issues. Ireland is not the only country in Europe that holds the position of being very concerned at what is effectively a shutting down by the Israeli Government of civil society organisations and NGOs linked to advocacy for Palestinians.

On programme D, I agree with the Deputy on the opportunities for St. Patrick's Day. I am sure there will be plenty of members of his party in Washington and elsewhere next week.

On coal for Moneypoint, the ESB has moved away from sourcing it from Russia. I understand it is again sourcing coal from Columbia. I will give the Deputy the note I have on the matter. I apologise for having so many pieces of paper. As it happens, the coal is not from the mine to which the Deputy referred. It is a good note so I will put it on the record. We are aware of reports around alleged abuses committed at the Cerrejón mine in northern Columbia. I understand the ESB has not imported coal from the mine since 2018. In any case, policy responsibility with regard to the importation of coal is obviously the remit of another Department, namely, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, but that does not mean we do not take note of it. Officials from the Irish embassy in Bogotá travelled to the mine region in 2019 and met all stakeholders involved. A report was issued and delivered to the mine management, civil society and the Columbian Government. Ireland remains actively cited on issues relating to the mine. As I said, my understanding is the ESB is forced to change its supply lines and the volumes of coal it uses are not easily found. My understanding is the ESB is now sourcing coal from Columbia again, though not from the Cerrejón mine. The Deputy will probably have to put a question to the responsible Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan.