Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The expansion of the Union that we are looking at should be the expansion of a value-led organisation as well as a geographical one. The statement on expansion would include Ukraine but obviously there are other countries at this time. Ukraine’s application is a different type of membership application and is in a different time for membership applications. Different circumstances should, thefore, apply. I congratulate the Taoiseach, the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on leading out on that.

On some direct Ukraine issues, if this country’s application had been with us before the invasion, it would have been asking the EU about rule of law issues in Poland and Hungary. Given the extraordinarily generous response of Poland and Hungary to the situation, is there still an appetite to pursue the rule of law issues?

On the energy crisis, what positions are likely around the reduction of VAT to allow flexibility to member state governments to reduce VAT and taxation on energy prices? We see in the last number of minutes the situation on Russian rubles where Germany has started a preliminary warning system of a potential disruption of energy. The energy situation, unfortunately, is not going to improve soon. What flexibility is going to be there for member states on that? I thank the Chairman.