Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

In that context, perhaps there is a pause because we do not want to be piling in. Is there a commitment from an Irish perspective to keep putting pressure through other means on the Iranian Government? That is my question about the upcoming Foreign Affairs Council on 23 June.

At the General Council meeting on 27 May, one of the items on the agenda was the review of whether Hungary is in breach of European Union principles. That was the eighth round of discussions. The Minister of State mentioned that Hungary blocked Moldova and Ukraine, as it is wont to do. That is not an indication of whether Hungary is adhering to its obligations. Every state has a right to block. However, other areas have caused major concern about how Hungary is behaving towards all aspects of civil society, reducing freedoms and putting more state intervention on the table. In essence, it is becoming almost a shell of a democracy. The European Union will, I hope, decide shortly what sanctions, if any, to take against Hungary. Given that Article 7 gives the power to suspend the voting rights of a member state - we will park for a moment that this will have an impact on accession discussions; that is a separate issue - does Ireland support suspending Hungary if it does not start to behave in a manner befitting a normal democratic country? Will Ireland step up and be one of the countries calling for it? I understand it will be a qualified majority vote. We should not watch which way the wind is blowing; we should take leadership positions, because if we are strong on democracy in other areas of the world, we should be strong on democracy within the European Union.

Much work has been done on the trade sanctions that might come after the 9 July deadline. Did the Minister of State hear my question about the issue of Hungary and Article 7?