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

I thank the Taoiseach for a detailed synopsis of the important European Council meeting last week. There are a number of points I would like to raise and indeed I have a couple of questions the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, might be able to address when he comes back in. It is simply impossible to deal with all the issues that were covered at this really important Council meeting so I am going to focus on just four, two of which are related to each other.

The first relates to the European Union's response to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and where there is scope for a collective response. I echo calls by other speakers on the rapid roll-out of the digital Covid certificate. I know the Acting Chairman has been very vocal about that. I ask the Minister of State to provide an update, if possible and as I requested in pre-Council meeting statements, on any engagement held or comparisons discussed between ministers and Heads of Government on approaches in dealing with the pandemic. I refer in particular to approaches to dealing with the Delta variant of the virus, which is causing understandable concern in this jurisdiction, and how we can marry the approach in Ireland to what at this stage is a very different approach by our continental colleagues. What can we learn? It is never too late to learn more. Are we following the exact correct path at this stage? There is no doubt yesterday's announcement was disappointing for everyone - let us not pretend it was not - but we should not lose sight of the time and ability to defeat this pandemic through rapid vaccination. There are other EU member states, including Belgium, that are ahead of us in the vaccination league table so we should see how we can learn from them now that the national immunisation advisory committee has given permission to open age cohorts that can be vaccinated.

The recovery and resilience programme has already been submitted by the Government. Will the Minister of State give an indication of when we can expect ratification of this from the European Union? I know other member states are a bit more advanced on this.

I will spend the final few minutes of my contribution on two matters that have been mentioned by all speakers. The first is the engagement on the rights of our LGBTQI brothers and sisters across the Continent and the importance within the European Union of not just maintaining those rights but protecting them. It would be churlish of me as a representative of the Fine Gael Party, which is part of the European People's Party, not to acknowledge that until very recently, Mr. Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party was a member of our European political family. It was suspended and then took the decision to leave that group.

This is something we carry as a badge of shame, to be frank, for those of us who believe in a progressive centre-right and truly open vision of the social market economy espoused by the likes of Schuman, Merkel and many others. However, it is never too late to right those wrongs and I commend the efforts of people like my colleague, Ms Maria Walsh, MEP, on bringing to the fore of the European conscience not just the need but the responsibility in every member state to maintain the rule of law and freedoms of which the European Union is so proud. That is something that should continue.

I share the thoughts of Deputy Howlin that perhaps the reflections of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte may need to be taken on board a little more seriously in Budapest. I hope that in due course we look to expand the European Union, whether into the western Balkans or elsewhere, but this is not an optional buy-in. Countries either agree to the terms of membership of the European Union or they should not apply. Being a member of the European Union is a privilege for each and every one of the 27 member states but the opportunities and rights come with very clear responsibilities to every one of the citizens of the European Union, regardless of jurisdiction.

In speaking about the rights of citizens I will conclude by referring again to the incident in Belarus and the ongoing fallout of the forced landing of an Irish-owned airliner travelling between two EU member state capital cities filled with EU citizens. I very much welcome the continued work on sanctions but as I have said before in this Chamber, I hope the Minister of State will bring back the message that this is not a brief interlude. It involves an EU carrier and EU citizens and we cannot turn a blind eye to what is going on in Belarus. I implore the Government to take a critical stance at the European Council to ensure sanctions continue and work is ongoing to ensure rogue states like Belarus cannot carry on. We saw a cyberattack in this jurisdiction in recent weeks. These attacks come from rogue states like Belarus and the attackers have patrons in places like Russia, which simply turn a blind eye to criminal gangs wreaking absolute devastation, as we have seen in our health system.

See this speech in context