Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On Russia, I will not give a running commentary on military matters; that is not within my expertise. On this so-called annexation of Ukrainian territory, we categorically condemn what Putin announced - that Russia could in any way annex part of the territory of Ukraine. This has no basis whatsoever in law and it does not actually even reflect what the people of those regions want for themselves. The sham referendums that were conducted in occupied Ukrainian territory by Russia and its proxies were illegal and illegitimate. They were not even referendums at all, if one looks at what happened on the ground. It is a further ploy to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to try to justify Russia’s totally unjustified and illegal war. It was an escalation. Ireland will never recognise the claims over the regions. We remain steadfast in our support of the people of Ukraine. Why are we fully in support of Ukraine? Because the annexation of Ukraine’s territory was a total violation of the principles of the UN Charter and of all basic international law. Russia has to end its aggression immediately and withdraw all forces from the territory of Ukraine.

We condemn the use of nuclear weapons. Any nuclear weapons would result in devastating consequences for everybody. Nuclear threats should not happen. Russia previously agreed with other nuclear powers that nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought. We have consistently condemned Russia’s action at the Security Council and we called for that council to continue its responsibilities of the maintenance of international peace and security. What we do at the UN and what we do in terms of nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation is the continuum of a long tradition of Irish foreign policy. Frank Aiken, former Minister for Foreign Affairs, was central to efforts to reduce nuclear proliferation around the world and eliminate it. This is part of our proud tradition.

I was very pleased to meet the Ukrainian MP, Kira Rudik, on Friday. We have had a lot of contacts with counterparts. She expressed her extreme gratitude to the Irish people, which I think she did in the media as well, for everything that we have done. She told me of a Ukrainian refugee who took her aside when she was here and said, “Kira, you would not believe how good they are”. I thought that was such a lovely thing for someone to say and how it was true. She also thanked teachers as well. There are more than 10,000 Ukrainian children now in Irish schools. They have been doing incredible work. We will continue to engage with Ukraine to help it in whatever way we can.

On budget conditionality, particularly in respect of Hungary, the Commission made a proposal on 18 September for implementing a budget that would be basically a suspension of cohesion funding to Hungary under our budget conditionality regulation. Essentially, there would be conditions that Hungary will have to comply with to receive funding. In the period ahead, we are engaging with our fellow EU member states to get a consensus on this. We have met the Hungarian Government. I met its representatives last month and they told me they are committed to complying with the conditions. We welcome what they are saying but obviously we have to see this and make sure that Hungary complies with conditions. We have continued concerns regarding rule of law in Hungary. We were fully engaged in all of the Council discussions that will ultimately determine whether EU funding is withdrawn pursuant to the mechanism, in light of what they actually do. Hungary essentially was given one month to comply with the Commission decision. It was looking for an extension, which would mean two months, and, quite frankly, I did not have a huge difficulty with that. That is on cohesion funding.

On the recovery and resilience programme, the Commission has not agreed anything with Hungary yet. We hope that it will. We believe in this recovery funding across Europe. We also know that Irish companies probably disproportionately benefit from European funding, even if it spent it on the member states because we are an exporting country that works abroad. However, if funding is agreed with Hungary, we have to make sure that there are effective anti-corruption safeguards to guarantee the sound management of what is European money and our money as well, as we are a net contributor.

We welcome the recent agreement between Poland and the Commission on milestones around the rule of law. Poland has taken steps on its judicial disciplinary regime in the context of the Commission approving its recovery and resilience fund. We definitely want ongoing dialogue between Poland and the European Commission on the implementation of those milestones as well as wider issues. The whole issue of judicial independence and respect for the European Court of Justice is not just important for us. In my opinion, it is very important for any business that is operating in Poland, which is a country that is very committed to our European Single Market. That market is very important to Poland and it wants to make sure there are no question marks whatsoever over that. It has been working quite well with the Commission on this. We welcome and support that. We also recognise the amount that Poland is doing for Ukrainian refugees, in particular, which is very good, and the pressure that its Government is under. We are working very closely with Poland on issues surrounding Ukraine on a number of fronts.