Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is over a week since the Ryanair plane was forced to land in Belarus, which led to the detention of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega. The US now joins with the European Union in imposing sanctions on Belarus over its campaign to crush critics of the President of Belarus and its diversion of the Ryanair aircraft so that anti-Government activists could be arrested. I want to get an update on what actions the Government has taken in regard to this issue, both as a nation and within the EU. My colleague, Deputy Howlin, raised this in the Dáil yesterday. We also need to know if Russia was involved in this hijacking and we need to put questions to the Russian ambassador. Where are we at in regard to proposed sanctions? There was an awful lot of activity on this a week ago but there seems to be less now.

The second issue is in regard to the EU directive on the minimum wage which is being proposed. Where are we at in this regard? If enacted, it would be a very important endeavour and would oblige member states to take measures to boost coverage to a target of 70%. What steps has the Government taken to push this through? Is the Taoiseach supportive of it? What are the timelines around it? Will the Taoiseach update the House on where he thinks this is going? Will it be enacted? Will the Taoiseach support it?

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