Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate in advance of the EU summit later this week. On Friday, it will be four months since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine so it is fitting and appropriate that the agenda of the EU summit is dominated by the Ukrainian crisis. That is as it should be.

First, I welcome that it now appears Ukraine and Moldova will officially be recognised as EU candidate countries once that is endorsed by the remaining member states. That is a good thing. Ireland, on balance, has benefitted enormously from our interaction with the European Union over the last 50 years, and the same opportunity should be extended to other countries as well. It has been a long-standing ambition for both Moldova and Ukraine to join the European Union and this is a great opportunity for them to do so. My big concern, of course, is that even if they get in, we are not sure how much of Moldova and Ukraine will be left after the Russian army is finished with them. We must remember that were it not for the determination of the Ukrainian people and the arms sent to them by the international community, most likely all of Ukraine would now be in Russian hands. I welcome that development and I look forward to an EU-wide endorsement of their candidacies thereafter.

On that basis as well, I strongly welcome the fact that significant commitments will be made, according to the agenda, regarding further support for Ukraine. It is very important that we do not have conflict fatigue regarding what is happening there. Ukraine needs continued political support, economic support, military support and humanitarian support. Having listened to the Taoiseach's comments earlier, I welcome the fact that Ireland's contribution to the European Peace Facility is being increased from €33 million to €44 million. That is a good thing in light of the less than ideal circumstances in Ukraine at present.

It is also appropriately on the agenda that we focus on the indirect consequences of the conflict in Ukraine. There are three crises running hand-in-hand - the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis and the food crisis superimposed on that. It is self-evident that the only way to tackle a cost-of-living crisis is to tackle the cost of living. There has been a great deal of back and forth in the Chamber in the last few months about the cost of fuel.

One side says the cost of fuel should be reduced while the other side says it is fixed at a European Union level and we cannot tamper with tax rates. Surely it is just a political decision to fix the tax rates. On that basis, it should be a political decision within the gift of politicians to change. If it needs to be changed at a European Union level, there should be an opportunity to do so.

We should also be able to reduce the cost of tolls in order to reduce the cost of living for heavily indebted commuters. We know the energy crisis is going to get worse as the northern hemisphere winter approaches. Putin knows that and it is part of his strategy. He wants to put the maximum squeeze coming up to the northern hemisphere winter. This is the longest day of the year, so every day between now and the year end it will get darker and colder. It is very important from that perspective that we emphasise the need to find different sources of fossil fuels outside of Russia and also that we try to accelerate the use of renewables, especially solar panels, to diversify our energy sources.

In terms of the global food crisis, we know that Putin is weaponising food. We know that there are some 20 million tonnes of grain in silos in Ukraine, which it is trying to export but it cannot. The European Union should do everything possible to facilitate the export of those food supplies by road, rail, air and even by sea. The Black Sea is currently sealed off by the Russians, but it is part of international waters and I see no reason an international naval force cannot go in there and secure a corridor from Odessa to Istanbul and allow merchant vessels to pick up the grain and move it back to the rest of the global community that is desperately in need of food in the coming months. I know there are risks associated with that, but there is a greater risk from doing nothing. There is an opportunity here given that the Black Sea is part of international waters, and the international community would be well within its rights to open up a corridor from Odessa to Istanbul, provided the Turks are agreeable to that, and get the food flowing to where it is needed most in poorer parts of the world.

We are all familiar with the fact that Russia threatened Lithuania in the past 24 hours because it sealed off its land border between Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. That is completely unacceptable. Ireland and the wider European Union should stand in solidarity with Lithuania as well. There is only a very small population there and Russia can still supply its enclave of Kaliningrad by air and by sea, unlike Ukraine. What Russia has done is completely unacceptable. In summary, I welcome the proposed agenda. I wish the diplomatic negotiating team well and I look forward to hearing of the decisions taken on its return.

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