Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. They caught me by surprise there. I thought there might be more.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin was first regarding the position on Brexit. It was a brief discussion. I met the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the Thursday. It was a very good meeting. She reaffirmed EU support for Ireland on Brexit and emphasised the importance of getting an overall agreement. The following day, President von der Leyen spoke to the Council and summarised how she saw the state of play in negotiations. I was then given the opportunity to make observations from the Irish perspective. There was one other contribution after that because it was not a general discussion on Brexit and we will return to that next week.

The Commission President indicated to me and the Council that she would be speaking to the British Prime Minister over the weekend. That has happened and I spoke to the Commission President again over the weekend. We had a good discussion on the phone. There has been agreement on both sides to intensify discussions between the UK and the EU. There are significant challenges on the level playing field, fisheries, which is a difficult issue, and governance, that is, what arrangement will be arrived at to ensure any agreement finalised, if one was finalised, would be adhered to. We have had an issue with trust being eroded in the context of the withdrawal agreement and the Ireland and Northern Ireland protocol. That is the position. As of now, those talks are intensifying and the President of the Commission and the British Prime Minister have agreed to keep in close contact to oversee the talks and make sure momentum continues in them.

On Belarus, the meeting was successful in that it broke the logjam on an issue between Cyprus and Turkey. Cyprus had withheld its position in agreeing sanctions on Belarus, pending a resolution of the issue around the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey in particular. The issue concerns Turkey drilling disputed Cypriot and Greek waters, which is an infringement of their sovereignty. That issue took up a lot of time at the meeting. It got resolved with conclusions, which will result in constructive mediation processes opening up that had started between Turkey and Greece and will now embrace Cyprus as well, utilising the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, with a view to arriving at a proper basis for a more satisfactory relationship between Turkey and the EU into the future. That facilitated unanimity on Belarus and it was agreed at the meeting to impose restrictive measures and sanctions, including an asset ban and travel restrictions, on 40 individuals in leadership positions in Belarus. EU leaders strongly condemn the indiscriminate detentions, harassment, intimidation and ill-treatment that continue in Belarus despite repeated calls for them to stop. I am glad we managed to get unanimity on it and get that out as quick as we could. There was no hesitation on the sentiment of the EU position on Belarus. To be fair to Cyprus, it has real issues around what is happening in the relationship with Turkey and it felt these needed to be addressed by the Council.

On Lesbos, it has been agreed to take 50 refugees. People say they want us to take more. I share the concerns for the trauma people have gone through and the need to help them but we must make sure those we take in are properly and comprehensively looked after in all aspects of their self-development and life and so on. That is something I am keen on. I will talk to the Minister on it again following the representations that have been made here and the moral responsibility people have articulated that we as a country should take on in respect of this very difficult situation. I know those involved want to make sure we do this properly and comprehensively for the longer term in terms of looking after those we take into our care and supervision.

On the economic and fiscal situation and the fiscal council, that is one aspect of the issue and we are spending an unprecedented amount. We are borrowing close to the middle twenty billions. I do not know what the final figure will be. As we are moving to level 3 now, a significant increase in the PUP was anticipated at today’s oversight group meeting between the different Departments. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection suggests there could be 40,000 to 50,000 additional applicants by the end of the week. There was a significant increase of 11,000 applicants at the close of business last night, which compares strongly to a norm of between 1 million and 2 million claims. We want to make it sustainable and we are extending the scheme. We want to look at other supports as well. It is also about fairness. There are people who lost their jobs prior to the pandemic who were never on the PUP but are on the jobseeker’s allowance. A total of 213,000 people get the basic allowance. There are issues there, to be fair to those, as well. There are carers and so on that people spoke about.

Deputy McDonald also spoke about the 400 Welcomes appeal and I think I have addressed that in my reply.

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