Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Paul Murphy raised an issue in respect of Sudan, which is very important. The Government shares the Deputy's concerns with regard to recent developments there. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, spoke about that. It is important that the United Nations and the African Union collaborate urgently to respond to developments including by strengthening peacekeeping measures. Ireland is, of course, engaged in this at the level of the UN Security Council. We are using our position in that regard.

I welcome what Deputies have said about the protocol and Article 16. I again thank everybody in this House for the solidarity they have shown with regard to the protocol. I will highlight what the Taoiseach said during Taoiseach's questions just before this debate. He made a very important intervention regarding the protocol. I hope people in Britain are listening. The Taoiseach said it would be irresponsible, unwise and reckless of anyone to invoke Article 16 and that, if it were invoked by the British Government, it would have far-reaching consequences for EU-UK and UK-Irish relations. I fully support that sentiment, which the Taoiseach has outlined in the strongest possible terms. I imagine it would be supported across the House.

I will also speak about Poland and the rule of law and other rule of law issues that have arisen in the European Union. I thank those Deputies who recognised that the Taoiseach made what may have been the strongest intervention with regard to the rule of law in the media last week. That was welcomed by many people who are very concerned about this and was noted by various media outlets.

There was a discussion at the European Council meeting and I again remind Deputies of the dynamics at the Council. All Council members have a veto. While Deputies or the Government may have issues with conclusions, there are 27 countries, each of which can prevent any conclusion. The conditionality regulation is welcome. While there is a case before the European Court of Justice, Ireland supported the position of the European Union in respect of that conditionality regulation and that is very important. I am proud of the comments the Taoiseach made and the work he did. Nevertheless, the Polish people and state are our friends and allies. Poland's place is in the European Union and we absolutely want Poland to be, as it has always been, a strong and good partner of Ireland within the European Union. We are always interested in strong relations and co-operation between Ireland and Poland, but sometimes you have to say these things to friends and I am glad the Taoiseach did so in forthright terms last week.

To conclude, I thank Deputies for their statements and questions. As the Taoiseach indicated, I will focus my closing remarks on the external dimension of migration. Colleagues will be well aware that the focus of external aspects of migration has been on migrants arriving at our EU borders via western, central and eastern Mediterranean routes. At the European Council meeting last week, there was agreement on the importance of the action plans developed regarding priority countries of origin and transit, namely, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Nigeria, Niger, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq. Leaders agreed on the need to operationalise these without delay, in co-operation with the partner countries concerned, and to underpin them with adequate financial support. We can all look forward to the Commission's report on its financing plans in November. Leaders have called for urgent financing proposals in regard to all migratory routes and planned use of at least 10% of the neighbourhood, development and international co-operation instrument, a financial envelope and other related instruments of migration action.

A disturbing and morally reprehensible new phenomenon has developed in recent months on the EU's borders with Belarus. The Lukashenko regime is deliberately stranding vulnerable people, some of them unaccompanied minors, in the border regions of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. As the Taoiseach said, this is a heinous act. At the European Council meeting, the Taoiseach and other European leaders were in full alignment regarding the development of a fifth package of sanctions against individuals and entities complicit in the Lukashenko regime's exploitation of migrants. This includes the Belarus national airline, Belavia. Ireland stands in solidarity with those EU member states affected by this weaponisation of migrants. We must remain firm and united in response to Lukashenko's provocations.

I visited the Lithuania-Belarus border last week along with my Lithuanian counterpart, Arnoldas Pranckevičius, and his colleague the state secretary for home affairs to assess circumstances on the border and hear about the ongoing humanitarian work by the Lithuanian Red Cross, to which Ireland has donated €100,000 to help migrants who have been moved into Lithuania's border region by Belarus. I saw the dangerous and precarious position migrants have been pushed into by the Lukashenko regime, and I welcome Lithuania's engagement with civil society to try to learn how to deal with this issue. Quite frankly, it has been presented with a really difficult situation of which it has limited experience. I saw videos last week of migrants being brought to the border, with Lukashenko's forces in riot gear to prevent them coming back into Belarus. As we understand it, somewhere between 8,000 and 22,000 migrants are on the streets of Minsk. This is very destabilising in Belarus and it presents the possibility of a serious humanitarian crisis in the coming weeks and months, particularly into winter.

We are treating this as a concern from a hybrid warfare point of view but also from the point of view of the people at the centre of this issue. We condemn all hybrid attacks. We cannot accept any attempt to instrumentalise vulnerable human beings for political purposes. International and human rights laws are always important and need to be protected. At the European Council meeting last week, leaders agreed that efforts should be sustained to reduce secondary movements, which is especially important for our partners in the Schengen area.

When I visited Lithuania last week, I also took the opportunity to convey again our support and that of this House for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the people of Belarus. Lukashenko's election last year was illegitimate and his regime should prepare for fresh elections that are free, fair and internationally monitored. We fully support her work and that of the co-ordination council as they prepare the way for a democratic transition. They tell me they are thus far pleased with how the sanctions are working - they seem to be having some impact - and they look forward to more sanctions, for which Deputies have expressed support.

I thank all Deputies for their statements and questions. I assure them the Taoiseach will continue to report to the House in advance of and following the regular meetings of the European Council. This is very important, given that when I was questioned by the media or other colleagues last week about the issue of Poland and the rule of law, I was able to say that this is a very important matter in the Dáil. On a range of other issues that have been raised as well, we can say as much in all our international engagements.

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