Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I draw attention to the European Movement Ireland poll for 2023 that was published last week. The poll shows that 88% of respondents in the Republic of Ireland believe we should remain in the EU. I would say this figure is one of the highest percentages across EU member states. Of interest as well was that only 9% of the respondents in the Republic of Ireland and 14% in Northern Ireland believed that Northern Ireland has been doing better since Brexit. In fact, 66% of respondents in Northern Ireland believed it has been doing worse. The Brexit chickens have come home to roost. We are still dealing with the fallout from the Brexit shambles, but the Windsor Framework has now been agreed, as we know, between the UK and the EU. The task now is to get on with its ongoing implementation.

Turning to Palestine, Israeli violence in the occupied Palestinian territory continues to escalate out of control. We recently witnessed the brutal Israeli raid on Jenin in the West Bank, where civilians were attacked and critical infrastructure destroyed. Israeli demolitions, settlement expulsions and forced transfers in the occupied Palestinian territory are unrelenting. All this activity is clearly a violation of international law and means that a two-state solution no longer seems viable. By any legal definition, Israel is an apartheid state. This has come to be accepted by many organisations. It took a long time for the international community to accept that South Africa was an apartheid state. We must ensure that it will not take as long for this reality to be accepted in the case of Israel.

What about the EU in all of this? What is it doing? I am a strong believer in the EU but it does not cover itself in glory when it comes to Israel. It seems that the Commission and several member states do not want to confront these realities. This is why it is welcome that Ireland is at the forefront in trying to build a consensus among member states to change the direction of the EU regarding the Israeli-Palestinian situation. I urge the Taoiseach to continue the work he has undertaken in this regard

As we know, the European Commission has brought forward the concept of de-risking when it comes to China. It seems, however, that many of the member states have not quite decided what their relationship with China should be. The Tánaiste clearly set out Ireland's position on China in a speech he made last May. My view is that concerns about China would be alleviated and its international reputation enhanced if it were to be genuinely proactive in trying to bring an end to the war in Ukraine by using its considerable influence with Putin to seek a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

I also wish to ask about Ireland's investor immigration programme. This was introduced as a job creation measure in 2012, but was brought to an abrupt end in February of this year by the Minister for Justice. The Minister at the time, Deputy Harris, said that a review of the suitability of the programme was needed. We need to know more about this. A report on the scheme by EY was published in May of last year. We know that a large number of applications under the scheme came from China. In fact, there were 1,275 Chinese applications in 2022. Were the major reasons for the suspension of this scheme the concern about the scale of Chinese investment in this country and the influence this could have? In summary concerning China, the EU has a multifaceted policy response and is deemed to be simultaneously a partner, a competitor and a systemic rival, make what we will of this. I note that Deputy Howlin also commented on this aspect.

UN Secretary General António Guterres warned in the past week that climate change is out of control. He spoke about a catastrophic situation. This month saw the world experience the hottest week on record. On Thursday, 6 July, the global air temperature was 17.23°C. We are now talking about climate breakdown and substantial biodiversity loss. There is the odd snippet of hope, however. The efforts of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to stop the relentless deforestation of the Amazon in co-operation with neighbouring countries are welcome.

I also want put on record my support for the EU nature restoration regulation, which was considered by the European Parliament earlier. Each member state will have discretion on how to achieve the targets set out and whether or not measures will be obligatory or voluntary. In addition, any rewetting targets that may apply to private landowners will be voluntary and incentivised. The Union has its European Green Deal and we have our Climate Action Plan 2023. We need to get on with implementing these measures and stop accommodating those who vigorously object to even the smallest proposed changes. In short, fossil fuels must be totally phased out despite all that will be involved in doing that.

The European Council meeting considered EU defence guarantees for Ukraine. I welcome the fact that the position of militarily neutral countries like Ireland, Austria, Malta and Cyprus was recognised in the final communiqué. It should be stated that this in no way diminishes our strong solidarity and support for Ukraine following Russia's unjustified and brutal invasion and I believe that this is universally accepted.

I discuss at length the challenges the EU faces with regards to migration during the pre-European Council statements. EU justice ministers reached an agreement last month, using qualified majority voting, on the asylum procedures regulation and the asylum and migration management regulation. Ireland is rightly opting into these proposals. As expected, Hungary and Poland objected at the European Council meeting to the proposed conclusions on migration. There is no doubt that these issues will continue to dominate the EU's agenda for many years to come.

Spain now holds the Presidency of the EU. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, when launching his country's Presidency, spoke about how Europe needs more allies than it has now and he specifically mentioned the need to improve relations with the countries which make up the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. That is in all of our interests given the current geopolitical situation. I hope also that when the EU-Mercosur trade agreement is finally implemented, it will deal effectively with the ongoing deforestation of the Amazon.

O energy, the EU, of course, has competence in respect of energy matters and the Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in prices skyrocketing across the energy sector. The EU responded to this last year and brought forth Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854, which provides for a mandatory solidarity contribution from crude, petroleum, natural gas, coal and refining companies in order to assist householders and businesses. The legislation arising from this regulation is going through the Oireachtas. I look forward to receiving details as to how this money will be spent in due course for the benefit of hard-pressed householders and companies.

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