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

Unfortunately, many questions have been asked but the format does not give me the opportunity to respond to all of them but I will try to respond to some of them. I am obliged to respond, however, to the specific issues that the Taoiseach indicated that he would ask me to respond to and it is important that I do that.

I will deal with the comments by Sinn Féin on two fronts. One was on the issue of the protocol and why this was not on the agenda of the European Council. That is very simple. Britain will not be there, the EU is currently in negotiations with Britain, and the EU is fully united, thankfully, on the issue of the protocol. Those negotiations are happening between the EU, of which we are a member, and the UK. We have full unity around that EU table and, therefore, there is no need for us to discuss it and we are being kept apprised of what is going on.

Yesterday in Luxembourg, I had discussions with many of my EU colleagues on the protocol, as did the Minister for Foreign Affairs on Monday. The Taoiseach will undoubtedly have discussions with his colleagues on Thursday, just as he had discussions with all the northern parties, including Sinn Fein, on Monday.

Sinn Féin said that there is a clamour for war within the EU but exactly the opposite is the case. There is a clamour within the EU for the stopping of war. Sinn Féin’s proposes that Ireland become some kind of a dissenting voice on the issue of Ukraine or Russia. There has been no dissent on sanctions at the EU table, no dissent on the temporary peace facility, although Ireland has taken a different approach because of our very important neutrality, and on the issue of Ukrainian refugees. The only dissenting voices that I hear are at the UN from countries such as North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and Belarus. Sinn Féin would need to think a little bit more carefully about what it is proposing because it does not make sense and the fact is-----

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