Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My point is, without interruption, it is not tenable that this situation continues. There has to be reform of the UN and the Security Council. When we were on the Security Council, Ireland put forward a good proposal linking climate change with security. India and China were sceptical at the beginning. Both of those countries abstained. One country stopped what the overwhelming majority of the UN wanted, which was to link climate with security that Ireland was championing. All the small island states of the Pacific were pleased with Ireland following up on the commitments that we made in the election to the Security Council. Who opposed and vetoed it? Russia. There are issues. Deputies are putting their heads in the sand if they do not think there is an issue there. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is entitled to articulate a view on that. We still need a triple lock in regard to the General Assembly and so on. I have suggested that we need a citizens' assembly to discuss these issues in a more informal and deliberative way than has been the case to date.

I do not accept Deputy Murphy’s view that COP27 has been a dismal failure. He mentioned politicians. He is a politician just as I am a politician. He opposes carbon tax. Some would say that is a dismal failure on his part in respect of climate change. Many politicians are sincere about climate change and good progress was made. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, deserves a great deal of credit for the extremely hard work he put in over the past two weeks. All the Irish team, including the civil servants in the climate section of the Department of Foreign Affairs, deserve great credit on loss and damage. Ireland was a leader on loss and damage. We have allocated funding under the global shield towards loss and damage, which was one small, concrete proposal around trying to prepare for that. Ireland is committed to that area and we remain committed.

Deputy Richmond raised the issue of the Single Market. I raised the question of how can we expand the Single Market. There is work not yet done in respect of services, for example, in the Single Market. We need to widen the Single Market in regard to services, which could help insurance costs and so on in the country. On the protocol, we discussed it generally in respect of where we were. At that time. Members will remember British politics was in a different space. The European Commission stands ready under Vice-President Šefčovič to move on the protocol issue and to be flexible. We want intensive talks to commence between the UK Government and the European Union.

Deputy Barry raised the ECJ. We did not discuss the Apple tax case. That is now with the courts and remains to be resolved.

See this speech in context