Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This issue has been raised on a number of occasions in the European Council and at the General Affairs Council, specifically after the death of the Maltese journalist. It has been raised in a number of formats with regard to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of dissemination of information and in terms of human rights violations and regulations. In any of these cases we encourage that those who ordered or carried out these killings are held accountable, that each member state where they take place has a transparent investigation into all these killings, and that it is not acceptable that a journalist, no matter what country he or she lives in, could be subject to violence or murdered for their views or the work they do to try to ensure people's rights and their freedom of speech and expression are upheld. This is something about which we have spoken very strongly. I have spoken very strongly on it at meetings of the committee of which I am a member and a number of other members have also spoken very strongly about it. It is something we will continue to raise in light of the recent death of Mr. Khashoggi. We all understand he was subject the most horrendous and gruesome death. I absolutely believe the perpetrators need to be held accountable and those who ordered his death absolutely need to be held accountable. From an Irish point of view and, as a member of the European Union, we will continue to raise these concerns and to stress the significance and importance of the freedom of the press and the right to free speech.

I thank those who have contributed to this debate on what was a very important meeting of the European Council. In addition to reporting in detail on Article 50 and Brexit, the Taoiseach has outlined the discussions on the euro summit. As he indicated, I will focus my remarks on internal security and external relations issues that arose on Thursday. In recent years, there has been good focus at EU level on supporting member states to ensure internal security and to fight terrorism. We now need to further reinforce Europe's long-term response to new and emerging threats.

The European Council discussions on internal security took into account the outcome of the informal summit in Salzburg, where leaders had an open-ended exchange on the proposals outlined in President Juncker's state of the union address. These include measures to complete the security union, to fight money laundering, to remove online terrorist content and to protect elections from malign foreign influence, as well as to reopen the Schengen borders and to use the civil protection mechanism . Their objective is to add value to existing and planned national measures and to further strengthen our collective security in a rapidly changing security environment.

While Ireland's participation in this area is limited due to our position under Protocol 21 and our non-participation in the Schengen border acquis, we are generally supportive of EU measures to protect the internal security of the Union and its citizens. Leaders focused in particular on cybersecurity, which has become increasingly challenging in recent years, with new and innovative forms of cybercrimes, including with regard to the integrity of our electoral systems, continuing to emerge. Here in Ireland last December we established an interdepartmental group to consider the risks to our electoral process, including a thorough examination of recent experiences in other democratic countries with respect to the use of social media by third parties.

The abuse of the online space by people promoting terrorism, whether by encouraging or directing atrocities, is also of great concern to us. The global nature of the Internet means individual countries cannot respond effectively alone. From Ireland's perspective, we support the concept of a collective response mechanism. We need to co-operate in combatting such illegal activities effectively while continuing to promote an open, global, free, peaceful and secure cyberspace where fundamental rights and freedoms, in particular the right to freedom of expression, access to information, data protection and privacy and security, as well as our core EU values and principles, are fully applied and respected in the EU and globally. In light of the attacks in Salisbury and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, leaders are welcoming a new regime of restrictive measures to address these threats.

The external relations discussed included climate change as well as developments in Venezuela and our relations with our partners in Africa and the Arab League. There were exchanges on the recent elections in Bosnia where nationalist and ethnic tensions were once again highlighted and on climate change, acknowledging the latest report mentioned by Deputies that unequivocally confirms the negative impact of climate change. Leaders agreed on the need for ambition in advance of the COP24 in Poland in December.

There was also an exchange on relations with Saudi Arabia on regional developments and the shocking death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In addition to the need to fully respect human rights, Ireland is committed to promoting and protecting freedom of expression and freedom of the media and civil space, and we join our EU partners in stressing the need for continued thorough, credible and transparent investigation into his killing to shed proper clarity on the circumstances surrounding it, which will ensure the full accountability of all of those responsible.

I thank the Deputies for their attention and remarks in the course of the debate. As the Taoiseach has made very clear, Brexit remains our priority. It is important that we continue to play an active and constructive role in the EU agenda and that we contribute to the ongoing debate about the future of Europe with a view to shaping its direction. I was honoured to lead the citizens' dialogue on the future of Europe over the past year. I look forward to continuing my involvement in this key area during the vital period ahead.

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