Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 April 2022

Post-European Council Meeting: Statements

 

12:50 pm

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will continue with some of the questions I brought up previously. Maybe there will be an opportunity, when the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, takes questions later, that we might get some answers. President Zelenskyy stated clearly what Ukraine is facing, including Russian war crimes. We have all seen the images out of Bucha. We welcomed Anastasiia, the little girl who was in the Chamber, and heard how her father is at this time fighting for his homeland. That is what the Ukrainians are dealing with. We have to do whatever we can that has an impact on the ability of Russia and the Putin regime to fight this war. We need answers on due diligence being done on section 110 and the money that has sloshed through the International Financial Services Centre, IFSC, but also in respect of the list the ambassador, Ms Larysa Gerasko, had given to the Department of Foreign Affairs of companies that were still trading with Russia. I understand there has been movement in this regard but we need to ensure that as much as possible is done to remove Russia's ability to fight this war. It would be good manners to get an answer back to the ambassador and her team. We all understand the difficulty that arises with the embeddedness and connectivity of business but we need to do due diligence and get to where we need to be on that.

The Taoiseach spoke a lot about energy security. We all understand the situation that we are dealing with. When we talk about sanctions and Russia, that means fuel. We need to see movement at a European Union level on block-buys. It is vital that the Minister of State would give the House updates on all the interactions there have been on seeking the derogation on the VAT rate that would allow us a tool to reduce the pain people are suffering here at present. During the pandemic we made many decisions on the basis of keeping the ship afloat, keeping families safe, keeping businesses afloat and ensuring that we had an economy afterwards. We need to ensure that again in these circumstances and at this time. The block-buys are huge. We know that in the long term we need to escalate everything we are doing to move towards renewable energy. We know we can be a wind energy hub or superpower. That is where it needs to go but in the short term, we need to ensure that people have fuel and energy and that they have electricity that is affordable and that we do not push them into further poverty. That is a given. We need whatever plans can be put in place from the European Union and here as soon as possible. May will just not come quickly enough for that.

Can we get details on any conversations that have taken place on China and its current relationship with Russia?

We would like to see the Chinese not supporting what is a disgraceful war in Ukraine. I am sure they realise it does not suit them in the long term.

I welcome the fact there have been conversations around Bosnia. I, among others, have met the Bosnian ambassador and he spoke of some of the hybrid threats we have been dealing with from Russia, its power plays, how this has impacted and the obvious difficulty with Republika Srpska. I would like an update on that.

We support providing a roadmap to the likes of Ukraine for accession to the EU. Moldova is doing a huge amount of heavy lifting with the current humanitarian difficulties. Deputy Brady is there with a delegation from the EU affairs committee to look at what is happening from a human point of view and what can be done to make that roadmap clear.

We are talking security and defence so it is straight to say any moves, or even making moves that look like we are moving the EU towards a military alliance, could create difficulties if, as we hope, Vladimir Putin gets to a place where he needs a way out. We do not need that to be part of the negotiating gambit.

We still have a huge body of work to do on the humanitarian aspect, especially where housing is concerned. There is going to be need for imagination. There is going to be free flow of credit. We will have to make up for the mistakes we have not dealt with in relation to addressing the situation.

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