Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I apologise that I will have to leave the debate early to attend an engagement with the European Parliament.

It has been 17 months now since Vladimir Putin's Russia launched a brutal and criminal war on its neighbouring sovereign state, Ukraine. In doing so, Russia unleashed the largest land conflict and the greatest displacement of people in Europe in more than eight decades.

Russia's attack on the Ukrainian people remains an abomination. Ireland remains on the side of the Ukrainian people. Our message remains that Russia must withdraw from Ukraine immediately. Russia must end this war and the bloodshed. I join the Taoiseach in his condemnation of the ongoing practice of the illegal removal and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus. Ireland, Europe and the global community have rightly stood against Russia's criminal invasion. We must continue to do so.

On Thursday, 29 June, the Taoiseach attended a working lunch alongside his European counterparts and the NATO Secretary General to discuss EU-NATO co-operation and Euro-Atlantic security. This discussion, he will know, took place at a time when there are ongoing concerns that the Government is actively undermining our neutrality and our independent foreign policy. Of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the global context, but it does not change the fact that Ireland is best placed when we play a role in conflict resolution rather than conflict participation. One of the severe and rightful criticisms of Russia has been in respect of its use of one of the world's deadliest weapons, namely, cluster bombs. An historic treaty banning the use of cluster bombs was agreed in Dublin on 28 May 2008, when diplomats and officials from 109 countries gathered at a conference in Croke Park and agreed a treaty banning their use. Their continued use by Russia is unacceptable, and so too is the decision by the US Government to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine. I hope that the Taoiseach has taken the opportunity to raise that point with his NATO and EU colleagues.

Ireland must stand up for what is right, regardless of who is doing wrong. The Government must be categoric that Ireland will not facilitate the transfer of cluster bombs in any way whatsoever. Ireland must stand against military aggression everywhere it is to be found, because this is not the time for double standards.

We must also stand together against Israel's war on the Palestinian people, its apartheid regime and its occupation of Palestinian lands. The Israelis' ongoing brazen breaches of international law are further brutal expressions of destruction and division, and the concept that might is right, which has caused havoc for humanity. It is a principle and a concept that Ireland can never accept. In particular, the recent scenes from the refugee camp at Jenin in the occupied Palestinian territory, where an Israeli raid resulted in the deaths of more than ten innocent Palestinians and forced thousands of others to flee their homes, points to an urgent and growing need for an international response to Israeli war crimes. Did the Taoiseach raise this matter at all at the European Council? If he did, what was the outcome? If not, why was that the case? Seriously, how could he not do so?

During the pre-Council statements, I sought clarity from the Government as to its current position on the EU-Mercosur trade deal, so perhaps the Taoiseach, or the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Peter Burke, will indicate in their closing remarks if they have finally told EU leaders that Ireland will reject the EU-Mercosur deal. The Brazilian meat industry intends to increase the cattle herd there by 6.5 million in order to meet its projected export demand. Earlier today, as has been stated, the European Parliament supported the nature restoration law. Sinn Féin supported the resolution after securing support for crucial amendments. We know that there will be important asks of farmers as society tries to tackle the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, and farmers in Ireland have shown that they will make big changes when they are supported in doing so, and once it is seen to be fair. There is nothing fair about a scenario where Irish and EU farmers are expected to adhere to the most robust environmental standards in the world, and rightly so, while the EU then signs up to a trade deal that will see the importation of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of meat products that do not meet those standards and the production of which is literally facilitated by the destruction of rainforests. I did not get clarification on this during the pre-Council statements. Perhaps the Minister of State would be so kind now as to give us a commitment regarding Ireland's position on that.

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