Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will answer these because there is a lot of stuff here. It is kind of a free-for-all. I am happy to answer but in some ways I am limited to answering on what comes before the European Council. I do not have information on some specific items that were not discussed at the European Council and nor am I the Minister of State with responsibility for some areas. I do want to take one point, however, that has been raised by a number of people, particularly Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, with regard to the Taoiseach apparently not meeting with the UN special rapporteur for Palestine. The Taoiseach met with her boss, the Secretary General of the United Nations, at the European Council last week and raised directly with him, in front of the other leaders, the situation in Palestine and Ireland’s concerns and, indeed, many of the concerns that were raised here in the Dáil. I want to put that on the record because it is very important. There is a lot of misinformation going out here regarding what the Taoiseach did or did not say at the European Council but I can say very clearly that he did that at the European Council.

It is also important for people to understand what the European Council is. Ireland does not decide the conclusions of the European Council. Ireland is one of 27 countries that come together with their various views and nuances that exist in every single country and we work together, not to take minutes, as some people have put it, but instead to give direction to the European Commission, the Council and the Parliament as to where we see things going in a general way. The workflow in those institutions follows from that.

It is also very important to note, because there is a lot of talk about war, peace and everything, that defence policy is a matter for member states and the conclusions - the bit the Deputy did not read out in the Chamber - refer to the specific traditions of certain member states. It is written in there, acknowledging countries like Ireland, Austria, Cyprus and Malta.

I assume the specific issue Deputy Boyd Barrett raised on the Central Bank is a matter for the Department of Finance and can be answered there. Ireland was to the fore in putting our voice forward in the conclusions. For example, I raised the issue of airstrikes at the General Affairs Council on the Tuesday before the meeting in preparation for the meeting. It happened the night before. I am glad there was reference to that there. Again, there were 27 countries around the table, all with different nuances and views.

On energy, the biggest decoupling we need is decarbonisation. That is the decoupling we need. It is something Sinn Féin has opposed time and again in regard to the various measures we have been taking to try to decarbonise and remove that link between natural gas and energy prices but Sinn Féin has opposed every measure we have brought in. Sinn Féin speaks out of both sides of its mouth on that.

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