Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has been a fair bit of discussion in the public domain about what is believed to have gone on or been run from the Russian embassy. There is talk of illegals and running a degree of espionage or industrial espionage operations throughout Europe. I am not expecting a comprehensive answer but is there any answer the Minister of State can give about that and the worries that exist around the Russian embassy at the minute? I accept that it fits into some of our fears and worries as regards hybrid and cyber security.

When we had our meetings with the Moldovans, Georgians and Ukrainians, people got the idea of the Copenhagen criteria. In fairness, the Minister of State has dealt with the significant issues, particularly in respect of rule of law. We know the issues around Hungary. Could there be a more straightforward roadmap and facilitation for them into the future?

On the question of Hungary and Poland, I assume on some level that Vladimir Putin has probably secured the future of the European Union and the whole idea of co-operation. We probably had a very different interaction with the Polish ambassador than we would have had previously, given the work Poland is doing in dealing with the desperate refugee situation. Has there been any movement from Poland since the invasion? I would imagine it also recognises the necessity of Europe. I am differentiating the Poles from Viktor Orbán. Even in respect of the latter, I assume there have been many conversations with him at a high level about the relationship with Vladimir Putin's Russia. The Minister of State detailed a lot of information about the candidate countries seeking accession. He spoke about Serbia. Even individually, we here have had conversations with the likes of the Bosnian ambassador and others. There is a belief that there are certain dangers in that part of the world and some of them have arisen, possibly due to Russian gamesmanship. Has the conversation moved on?

On gas, people are seeking every source outside of Russia, which is absolutely necessary. Am I correct in thinking there is a rationing deal across Europe such that if gas resources are depleted in the likes of Poland, everyone has to pony up? At that stage, primacy would have to be given to electricity production so we could find ourselves not only with the difficulty of price but also a lack of supply. I think everyone here is in absolute agreement that we need the European Union to come back with a positive result from the point of view of giving us some necessary levers on VAT. The issue of supply is particularly concerning at this point. I get that. In the best-case scenario, we need to make maximum use of the renewables that are available to us. However, we are not going to be able to do that straight away.