Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate and, of course, I wholeheartedly support this extremely important motion. Before I talk to the topic at hand, I want to state that this motion replaced statements on the post-European Council on the schedule. I have asked my party’s representative on the Business Committee that that be on a future schedule of the Dáil because it is a requirement under the Lisbon treaty, in terms of subsidiarity, that our national Parliament receives a report on the European Council. That is vitally important. While Belarus was front and centre of the Council, it was not the only issue and there was much more to discuss. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, focused on in detail.

I am grateful to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for his detailed intervention and the strength of this motion. It really is very strong and important. I want to commend the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, on his tireless efforts on this issue. Throughout his time as the Minister of State, he has gone above and beyond in terms of phone calls, meetings and corralling support within European Union member states for what was an important decision by the European Council last week. I will not lie. I was sceptical that the response from the European Council might have been slightly disappointing, given the nature of other governments' approach to dealing with Belarus and Russia. To have unanimous support for what is easily the strongest set of sanctions on and condemnation of Belarus coming from the European Council is vitally important, and is a huge testament to the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and their tireless work with European colleagues. I am struck and disappointed that it has taken an act of international terrorism to unite the EU to do something genuinely forcible in relation to the situation in Belarus.

The fact an Irish-owned airliner was forced to land in Belarus so Roman Protasevich could be dragged off the plane by KGB agents with his girlfriend and now languishes in a Belarusian jail potentially facing the death penalty is the most bizarre and scary situation. That is what it took for every one of the 27 member states of the European Union to finally stand up and offer genuine condemnation and sanction for the totalitarian regime in Belarus which many of us have spoken about and raised via parliamentary questions and other post and pre-European Council statements in this Chamber for some time. It is nothing new. We are dealing with a brutal dictatorship that is a puppet of the Russian Government. We have to be firm, not just in this Parliament in the EU member state furthest from Belarus, but across the European Union.

Roman Protasevich is one of at least 421 political prisoners languishing in a Belarusian jail. I am fortunate, like many Members of this House, to have been asked by Libereco to adopt one political prisoner, Tatsiana Yakelchyk. She sits in a Belarusian prison since November. She was a 20-something-year-old student going about her business and concerned about the future of her country. She was arrested in the middle of the night and taken from her apartment. Her mobile phone, laptop and iPad were seized. Now she stands on trial in a collective trial. It is an absolute show trial and she will be found guilty. Lord knows what the regime will do to her and many others.

This has been going on for a long time and it is not good enough that we allow certain member states in the EU to block meaningful action. While the sanctions agreed by the European Council were extremely welcome and this motion put down by the Government is particularly welcome and strong, it is still not enough. We need to look at what other member states, former member states and non-member states of the European Union have done to provide a meaningful response to what is going on in Belarus and the Belarusian regime's attack on European sovereignty by forcing a European-owned and EU-registered airline travelling between two EU capital cities and full of EU citizens to be brought down in the manner it was, with a fighter plane and an illegal bomb threat.

We have to call for the EU to make a full audit of every business based in the EU, including Ireland, which has connections or is active in Belarus. Such an audit has been called for in the house in Westminster. We have to make it clear that doing business with the regime in Belarus is unacceptable. It cannot be stood for and we cannot allow the citizens of Belarus and of the EU to be put at risk for economic gain or otherwise. I call on the Minister to make that meaningful charge at the next meeting of the General Affairs Council.

I am struck by the universal tone of the debate here. I have not heard anyone say they will speak or vote against this motion, which is refreshing. Hopefully we will have more of this in the future. This is a pretty black and white issue. There is no grey area. We have to look at what we as a country can do meaningfully and how we can separate the authoritarian, totalitarian dictatorship, the regime and the cronies that surround President Lukashenko from the innocent people in Belarus who are suffering. Ireland has strong ties to Belarus. I am thinking of the work done over the years by Adi Roche and former Deputy Noel Coonan, who worked with children from Belarus affected by the fall-out from the Chernobyl disaster and other things to bring them to Ireland. We are struck by that tie and that relationship.

Something we can do is follow the example of what the UK did with Hong Kong. The Government can offer Irish visas immediately to any non-regime individual with the ability, opportunity and fortune to escape Belarus to allow them to work and travel and give them the security of being in the European Union. That is in our gift and is a sensible, generous measure. It is something we can do as a small EU member state to prove to the people of Belarus that we are on their side and that, when we criticise Belarus, we criticise the murderous regime of President Lukashenko, not the innocent people who have to live under that barbaric regime.

Beyond that, we have to put pressure on the sporting organisations. There is not a rich history of ice hockey in this country but the fact the ice hockey under-19 championships are due to take place in Belarus in the coming months needs to be raised. We need to put pressure on EU member states with active ice hockey teams and ask them not to send those teams into this despotic regime to play and offer tacit agreement to what the regime is doing. It extends, more importantly, to football. There are many matches and tournaments in Belarus in the coming months and years. We need to take a stand as a Government and as the European Union.

We have to remember this regime denied Covid existed. It did not bring in any restrictions, forced its people to continue to work, allowed the Belarusian football league to continue as the virus ran like wildfire. What is behind this regime? Of serious concern to the entire European Union is the tacit and not-so-tacit support the regime receives from the Russian Federation. This is increasingly concerning and we have to be more outspoken in this Chamber and at a European Union level about the influence of the Russian Government directly and other sinister forces surrounding that Government, within the European Union and in our neighbourhood. They are supporting and propping up this regime.

At the weekend, we saw a lovely cuddle between Vladimir Putin and President Lukashenko. We saw the desperate dictator going to Moscow to receive affirmation and the guarantee of protection, funding and much else. It is pathetic, but that is what we face. We see the influence Russia has had in the affairs of Ukraine. We see the scandalous acts in the United Kingdom in the city of Salisbury and the brazen attempts by Russian elements, government or non-government, to influence elections across the European Union.

This State expelled Russian diplomats only a couple of years ago in response to the vicious state-sponsored murder in Salisbury. We need to be clear that within the European Union we will not tolerate these attempts to undermine our democratic institutions, our domestic security and the viability of this country to act without fear of influence and malevolent forces. Many regimes across the former Soviet bloc are prepared to tolerate and protect the sort of criminal gangs that were responsible for the vicious cyberattack that befell the HSE in recent weeks.

We are not talking about the situation in Belarus in isolation. We are talking about the geopolitical stability of the entire region and the need for Ireland as a member of the European Union and the UN Security Council not just to put down a motion like this, though it is extremely welcome, and have a selection of strong speeches, but also to play our part on the global stage continuously. The 400-odd prisoners in Belarusian jails will still be there in a couple of weeks’ time and the people who live in Belarus will still be suffering. We cannot let this debate be a one-time effort.

I appeal to the Minister to make sure that this motion is binding and lasting and that everything done at an EU level by any Minister of this Government continues to push the case for the ordinary people of Belarus and underlines the concern all of us have for security and stability across the European Union and how that is reflected by the dictatorship in Belarus.

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