Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It appears the Taoiseach may not be able to attend this week's meeting of the European Council. This is a very important summit. I welcome the opportunity to speak on two pressing matters that will, as the Minister set out, dominate discussions, namely, the invasion by Russia of Ukraine and energy costs. I also extend our best wishes to the Taoiseach. I very much hope he will make a speedy recovery from the virus and will soon return to work.

I also extend our total and unwavering solidarity to the people of Ukraine, who bravely stand and fight for their country. The actions of Russia are illegal and unjust and no country should be subjected to the kind of military aggression faced by Ukraine. The priority must be to end this invasion and to secure a full Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. This war must stop. To this end, we need economic sanctions to be strengthened again at this meeting of the European Council. We hope our Government will press for a maximalist position and not for incremental advances.

There also has to be a step up in the diplomatic response to this Russian aggression. The Government has resisted any calls for the expulsion of the Russian ambassador from Dublin. It indicated some time back that it would do something else by way of applying greater diplomatic pressure. As we speak, I am unclear as to what those actions were or might be.

We are clear, however, that Russia's diplomatic footprint must be challenged and addressed in Ireland and across the European Continent. The unfolding humanitarian crisis, which we see on our television screens day after day and night after night, demands action from all of us. Yesterday I visited The Address Connolly in my constituency, a hotel where more than 600 Ukrainian refugees are in residence. It is quite something to see men, women in particular, and children of all ages, up to and including teenagers, taking refuge in the heart of our city. They are in the warm embrace of the Dublin people but they are so dislocated from their families and lives. It is utterly devastating.

We have to play our part and I have no doubt that we will do so but we need a plan. As I said earlier, we need to see the detail of how we will accommodate people and how all of this will work in practice. We also need to see further action from Government to ensure that hard-pressed families, workers and consumers are protected from price hikes, which have already wreaked havoc on the budgets of households across the land. I said to the Tánaiste earlier, and I wish to reiterate, that we need to see a relaxation of EU VAT rules so that we can reduce energy bills. On 13 October 2021 the European Commission launched its toolbox for action and support to tackle rising energy prices. Among the measures outlined was an allowance to exempt temporarily or apply a reduced tax rate to vulnerable households on electricity, natural gas, coal and solid fuels under the energy taxation directive. As the House will know, since the beginning of November Sinn Féin has called on Government to engage with the Commission on a special derogation to remove VAT on household energy bills, such as gas and electricity and there has to be action on home heating oil as well. There was an exchange of views on whether or not there are excise duties on home heating oil or not but there are and they need to be removed without further delay. The Council meeting, therefore, takes place at a time of huge challenges all around. The greatest challenge for Europe and the Ukrainian people is the humanitarian challenge but we should not forget that citizens here are struggling badly and that we need action to address this.

I mention the strategic compass and the future of European defence. I would like to record that historically there has not been a robust defence of Ireland’s neutral position. There has been a creeping disregard for that position and that is a mistake. The position of Ireland as a militarily neutral country with an independent foreign policy is a great strength. It is the very thing that will allow us to make our contribution on the international stage and that has ensured that Irish peacekeeping troops are the most effective in the world and are universally well-received. This is a country with a past of colonial oppression, conflict, partition and latterly, peacemaking and that is the platform from which we can assert our voice on the global stage. Any diminution of or move away from that position of neutrality would be strongly resisted by Sinn Féin and by the Irish people. What if the neutral countries like Ireland had our place set out in the basic law of the European Union and in the treaties? That is what we should be looking for. We should be looking to exert our full strength and to assert our full voice. We should not resile from that position, particularly now, when we again learn the hard lesson that this world with hyper powers and nuclear weapons can be a very dangerous place and that in the end it is men, women in particular, and their children who suffer most and who flee for their lives.

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