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

I thank the Deputy for those questions. The initial cost estimate for reconstruction currently stands at approximately €750 billion. We are talking about a very large country that has endured extraordinary levels of damage and destruction across multiple cities. Some cities hardly exist anymore in light of the level of bombardment and destruction. I witnessed some of that first-hand at Bucha but from what I am told and from the images I have seen, cities like Mariupol and some others are like Bucha multiplied many times over. We are going to need something of a similar level of ambition to a Marshall plan. Ireland will support that and I think many others within the European Union will too. Many Ukrainians need the certainty and the hope of a journey to somewhere different to where they have come from, which is the journey to the European Union and all that comes with that in terms of stability, opportunity, economic development, diversity, and, most importantly, safety and stability. Ukraine would be a member of a group of countries that have extraordinary solidarity with each other within the European Union. We need to physically rebuild Ukraine but also help the Ukrainian Government rebuild institutional infrastructure in the image of what is needed for EU membership. That is what the European Union wants to do in partnership with Ukraine in the future. That is a source of extraordinary hope and courage and is what Ukraine is currently fighting for. It is not only a possibility but a likelihood, if not a certainty, for Ukraine as a country in the future.

I agree with the Deputy that the level of ambition needs to be significant. This should not just be about loans; it should be about grant aid as well. It will be a combination of both, in reality. There has been a series of discussions around how that might work, whether countries could adopt certain oblasts or regions in Ukraine and how to create consistency if we did that. Ireland has been linked to certain cities in that context that have been severely damaged. There is a lot to discuss there. I assure everyone in this room, and anybody else listening, that Ireland will be more than willing to link with whatever structure is agreed between the EU and the Ukrainian Government for rebuilding efforts post conflict.

Regarding the impact of sanctions, our approach to sanctions is a maximalist one because we believe that the higher the cost of the continuation of this war for Russia and the Kremlin, the increased likelihood of it ending some time soon. If there is not a cost, whether political, economic or military, it will continue. The most effective weapon the EU has is sanctions. The European Union is an economic superpower. It has very strong links with Russia in the context of energy in particular but also for lots of other products too. Significant sanctions are needed in order to bring an end to this conflict and I do not believe we have gone far enough. We can go further. The European Union must consider a seventh package of sanctions. There are differing perspectives as to whether we should be bedding down existing sanctions and so on. Unity is important in the European Union. We need to listen to concerns, but Ireland will advocate to continue to raise the cost of the continuation of the war in an effort to bring it to an end. The application of sanctions more generally requires a lot of debate because sometimes sanctions are totally ineffective but in this instance they are more than justified. If you want to end something, you have to increase the negative cost of continuing it. Sanctions can do that.

On the European Peace Facility, it is important to put the facts on the table. Ireland was very involved in finalising the wording of the European Peace Facility to ensure every country in the European Union could be involved if they wanted to be. That means NATO countries, non-NATO countries, countries that regarded themselves as militarily neutral and countries that were not. We led efforts, along with Austria and Malta, to find a wording that could allow Ireland to fully contribute financially to the European Peace Facility. It was never designed for a war like that in Ukraine. It was designed for peace interventions that may involve some arms being supplied in order to facilitate stability around policing and so on. Ireland traditionally has not supported the funding of armaments and we continue in that tradition. Every time €500 million is committed by the European Union through the European Peace Facility, €11 million of that is Irish money. It is 2%, which is our allocation. We have made it clear that, within the funds being provided, we want to be funding the elements that are non-lethal weapons. These elements are necessary. So far, about 10% of the fund relates to non-lethal weapons and 90% relates to weapons. The non-lethal weapons include everything from body armour to helmets, medical equipment, food parcels and fuel. These are all things that are needed by the Ukrainian military.

We are playing our part in terms of the financial contribution, the same as every other country, but we limit our contribution to the element of the fund that covers non-lethal weapons. That is the right approach because it is supported in the programme for Government. It is an approach some Deputies have questioned.

I can understand that because if you ask Ukrainians what they want the most, the answer is that they want weapons to defend themselves. Keeping unity in the Government and in the Oireachtas more generally is important in terms of the strength of response that comes from Ireland. We maintain unity based on what was agreed in the programme for Government and what is supported by a strong majority in the Dáil and Seanad.

Additionally, for what it is worth, I have had this discussion many times with Ukrainian colleagues, including in Kyiv, and they understand where we are coming from. Therefore, we are making a contribution to the Ukrainian military. It is a significant contribution. I never recall Ireland at any point contributing almost €50 million to another country’s military. This is what we have done in the space of four months. We will be contributing more, because I suspect there will be another round of European peace facility funding. By the end of this war, therefore, we could have contributed support worth €70 million or €80 million to the Ukrainian military, outside of lethal weapons. This is worth saying. We are doing many other things as well but the question was around lethal military aid or weapons and ammunition.

It is also important to say that if we compare Ireland with other European countries, then we do not have much to offer when it comes to weapons. There are some Javelin missiles in our military armament stocks, but not many. We certainly do not have many to spare that we do not use for training and for our own teams on missions abroad. We have some anti-tank weapons as well, but not large numbers of them. If we were to support lethal weapons through the European peace facility, we would effectively be writing a cheque for other countries to provide those weapons, by and large. Ireland’s contribution here then is not in the form of weapons and munitions. Our contribution has come in the form of many other things to support the Ukrainian military and, of course, in the humanitarian, diplomatic, sanctions and EU enlargement and EU membership contexts. We are trying to maximise our impact in all those areas. It is important, though, to keep a sense of unity and direction in respect of our overall response to this conflict. If we moved into the space of funding or supplying lethal weapons, we would fracture that unity and that would be a mistake.