Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have just five minutes to talk about this very wide agenda before the European Council.

Of course, the agenda, quite understandably, is dominated by the ongoing war in Europe, the ongoing illegal assault on Ukraine by the Russian Federation. A number of issues will be discussed at the Council. As for additional support for Ukraine, what specifically will we do? The Taoiseach talks about increasing non-military aid from Ireland. It would be interesting to hear what specifically is proposed. My view is that this is now a pivotal stage of the conflict. It is quite clear that the Russian Federation intends to launch a major assault to consolidate what it wants to consolidate on the territory of Ukraine to ensure that, if there are peace negotiations, they will be on the basis of Russia's occupation of a considerable portion of what is sovereign Ukrainian land. What supports will we provide, and what further pressures, another agenda item tomorrow, will the EU put on Russia to stop this absolutely appalling aggression?

Accountability of the perpetrators is certainly a welcome initiative. The decision of the International Criminal Court to indict both Putin and Russia's commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, is a very important and significant step. It is a signal, at least, that there is a forensic analysis of the crimes being committed by the Russian invaders and that there will be an accounting for them, if not today or tomorrow, then sometime in the future.

The unlawful deportation and dislocation from Ukraine of Ukrainian children is absolutely shocking. The notion that children, victims of war already, are dislocated and brainwashed into a different identity, a different nationality, is something we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War. These matters deserve the strongest attention. I hope that when the Taoiseach comes back next week, we will have very detailed explanations of the specific measures the European Union will take to bolster the ability of Ukraine to resist what is coming and to make known in the clearest terms that those who are the perpetrators of this shocking aggression, carnage of a people and destruction of property and infrastructure will be held to account.

I wish to touch on another issue in the couple of minutes I have, and that is the competitiveness and the Single Market agenda. I have raised before with the Taoiseach the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States on the European economy. Most major manufacturing facilities and companies across the European Union have indicated that they will struggle to continue manufacturing and processing in Europe when $500 billion in new spending is planned on the third of the legislative proposals to bolster the economic output of the United States. The Biden Administration is to be commended for what it is doing to cement in its own industrial base and to draw production back into America, but that will have an enormously deleterious impact on us. I note that the Taoiseach mentions the new legislative proposals for a net-zero industry Act and a European critical raw materials Act. The timescale for those and the resources that will be put behind them will be pivotal if we are not to haemorrhage jobs and basic research on the green agenda to the United States. I hope that that will form a very clear part of the discussions that will take place at the Council.

I will touch briefly on two other items in the few seconds I have left. We had a very constructive interaction with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs on the current situation in Israel and Palestine last night during Question Time. I have said that it is my belief that the very foundation of the long-held view of a two-state solution is now being fundamentally undermined - deliberately - by a government that is beyond the pale. Some of the utterances, certainly those by the finance minister, have been racist in character, tone and content. Europe must be very clear on that; otherwise we will, I think, have protracted violence there for a very long time.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to speak at length about the fourth item, but I hope that progress will continue to be made on the Windsor Framework on restoring the institutions in Northern Ireland.

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