Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to comment in advance of the EU summit meeting tomorrow and Friday in Brussels. The meeting will be chaired by the Swedish Presidency. I very much approve of the agenda. It is only right and proper that Ukraine dominates the agenda, for obvious reasons. It is the burning issue in Europe at the moment, both literally and metaphorically, unfortunately. I join colleagues in welcoming the decision by the ICC to indict Vladimir Putin and issue a warrant for his arrest on the basis of the unlawful deportation of children. That decision is entirely appropriate from an accountability point of view and as a deterrent. It is unlikely that Putin will present himself or be presented to The Hague. However, we would have said the same about Radovan Karadžić and Slobodan Milošević from the former Yugoslavia. History tells us otherwise in that regard. I very much welcome the decision of the ICC.

I condemn the most recent missile attacks in Ukraine, which again targeted civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, in the past 24 hours. I note that President Xi Jinping has been in Russia in recent days. It does not appear that Mr. Putin got too much out of the Chinese President. If China is genuinely in favour of a peaceful resolution, I hope President Xi communicated to Mr. Putin the futility of what he is trying to achieve in Ukraine and that the only viable course of action is an immediate ceasefire and imminent withdrawal unilaterally. I am sure Ukraine would reciprocate and respond in kind immediately.

As regards EU support of Ukraine, it is good that President Zelenskyy will remotely address the conference in Brussels.

I am also very pleased that the UN Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres, will be present. I hope that Ireland communicates in as clear a way as possible our gratitude to the UN Secretary General for brokering numerous Black Sea grain deals. I very much welcome the extension of the deal by an extra 60 days. A delegation from the Turkish embassy, which was with us recently, communicated to us that this deal involves more than 1,000 vessels per week. That is the ballpark figure for the number of vessels that pass through Istanbul every week. Ireland is benefiting from that both directly and indirectly from the point of view of fertiliser and food. The deal is saving the lives of millions of people and preventing malnutrition in hundreds of millions of people as well.

I welcome that the prisoner swaps are still ongoing directly between Ukrainian armed forces and Russia. They are exchanging, unfortunately, the remains of soldiers and civilians but also live prisoners of war. While Ireland has been forceful in support of EU membership for both Moldova and Ukraine, we should do as much as possible over the next few days to hammer that message home. We really need to get Ukraine and Moldova into the EU orbit, which is where they want to be voluntarily.

The events of the past few years with Brexit have hammered home to us the importance of the Single Market, which is hugely beneficial to Ireland. I welcome that the Windsor Framework has been signed off and approved by most of the parties at least. There will not be a border on this island and Northern Ireland will get dual market access. For me, more than anything, the deal means that politics really is the art of the possible. It is probably the best possible outcome Ireland could have hoped to have achieved. Had it unravelled or had there been a major problem, it would have been catastrophic for this jurisdiction and even worse for Northern Ireland. I very much welcome this agreement. I was in County Fermanagh recently and the mood music is good. My sense is that a deal is on. We should continue to be supportive. While one party needs a bit more time, I am hopeful the Assembly will up and running as soon as possible. We should certainly be supportive from that point of view.

I will make a few miscellaneous points. The deal between Serbia and Kosovo normalising their relations is very important. There was a major escalation of violence only two months ago and it looked like matters were moving in the wrong direction. It is good that we are at least stabilising the situation in the region.

I hope Ireland will be as generous as possible at the donor's conference for the post-earthquake efforts in Turkey. I know we always are. It was a particularly large catastrophe, however. We should not forget the humanitarian situation in Syria either. Obviously, ease of access is much more difficult in Syria but money can be provided to appropriate agencies to make sure the aid gets to where it is needed.

The Euro Summit on Friday is very important. I look forward to the backbrief from the Taoiseach next week. We know what is happening in the United States with regard to regional banks. We saw what happened in Credit Suisse only recently. Irish people of a particular age can feel exactly what is happening in Switzerland in the moment because we have been down those tracks. We probably know what will happen next over there as well. I am very keen to get a backbrief from the Taoiseach regarding what is said at that conference, in particular about the resilience of EU banks and financial institutions, including most certainly our own.

In summary, I welcome the agenda and wish the Irish negotiating team well in its deliberations.

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