Dáil debates

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

10:25 am

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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9. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is satisfied with the efforts of his Department to date as regards deepening Ireland's business relations with Saudi Arabia; if, at any meeting with his counterparts there such as on the trade mission he participated earlier in 2015, he raised the issue of the country's well-documented human rights violations; if human rights considerations are taken into account by his Department in policy decisions regarding its dealings with Saudi Arabia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37210/15]

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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A 21 year old boy, Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, has been sentenced to public crucifixion and beheading for joining an anti-government demonstration in Saudi Arabia when he was 17. The execution is reported to be imminent and all appeals to the King have been ignored. It is reported by the family that the boy is being tortured while he awaits his death. His execution, if it is carried out in the next few days, will be the 136th since January. I wonder if the Minister is still of the opinion that trade missions are not the place to raise human rights issues effectively, no matter what horrors are taking place in the country we are doing business with.

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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That is correct. Trade missions are to deal with trade but there are many avenues where the Irish Government takes a very strong line in regard to human rights issues. The situation is that we bring companies with us on trade missions which then seek to open up opportunities to trade. In the past four years, such measures and missions have opened up a net 40,000 extra people at work in exporting companies. A key focus is to grow in markets which offer opportunities, and these include areas like the Gulf region. It is clear we have to work on that and get companies to establish business-to-business links, encourage investment and encourage companies to form a base and grow in these markets that have growth prospects. Some 90% of the growth in trade is going to be outside of the European Union, so we are going to have to trade in Asia, the Gulf and in many countries, and Ireland has an interest in growing that.

Ireland has also been at the forefront internationally in raising human rights issues through bilateral contacts, especially through the European Union and the United Nations. We have never shied away from addressing these issues. We will continue to be a strong advocate for higher global standards that improve human rights and encourage the highest standards of business conduct and corporate social responsibility.

During the last trade mission I led to the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, in April of this year, Irish companies from a wide range of sectors concluded deals and created jobs in Ireland. They prospected with potential buyers and developed relationships with key sectors, including aviation, water technologies, financial technologies, support to various programmes and so on. These are important opportunities we need to develop.

Ireland is an active member of the EU human rights group in Riyadh which co-ordinates EU policy on human rights issues and progresses implementation of the EU’s human rights country strategy for Saudi Arabia.

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister said we have human rights standards but, seriously, we are only paying lip service to this. Each year, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation grants billions of euros worth of export licences for dual use goods that are sent by Irish-based firms to some of the most destabilised and war-torn regions on earth. Does the Minister know what role Irish firms may have played in the wide-scale massacre of Yemeni citizens by Saudi Arabia in the last number of months, backed by the US? It beggars belief that we can just totally ignore what is going on in Saudi Arabia. Has the Irish Government objected to the massacre of civilians in Yemen? Does it have any impact whatever on our trade dealing? It does not look like it.

The Minister said he cares. We were able to back the EU on its trade sanctions with Russia but, here, we cannot do enough business with the Saudi Arabians. According to international sources, they are actually beheading more people than ISIS. Would the Minister sell stuff to ISIS if it wanted to buy something off him? I am sure he would not, but he is prepared to sell stuff to Saudi Arabia and do business with it. I do not understand that. There is no consistency.

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Irish companies that are selling into Saudi Arabia are predominantly in areas like milk products, technology, medical products, oil and so on, and Irish services are also significant. Overall, the trade is about €1.5 billion into Saudi Arabia from Ireland, which is probably supporting 1,000 jobs in Ireland. It is a significant market for many of the companies we were just talking about, which are growing in, for example, the agri-engineering sector, and have technologies that are relevant.

In terms of dual use goods, the licensing in my Department is very carefully monitored and involves discussions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in areas where there might be particular issues of concern. If the Deputy has concerns about individual licensing arrangements, he should certainly bring them to the attention of the Department. That is very closely monitored and we are very careful to ensure there is no abuse of the obligations in that regard.

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister said we are doing €1.5 billion worth of trade with them. I do not want to be responsible for losing jobs in Ireland. However, the Swedes were selling Saudi Arabia €1 billion worth of armoury per year. When the Saudis started bombing Yemen, they cancelled that and they are no longer selling to them out of respect for what is happening to Yemeni citizens. We are not taking a position. Aside from that, if the Saudis find that countries like Ireland will trade away with them, whether in food, milk or dual parts, it means they have a licence to do as they please. Nobody is giving them as much as a smack on the back of the hand.

In November last year we gave permission for two overflights for planes travelling from Dover, Delaware to Saudi Arabia. We found out under a freedom of information request that those planes were carrying class 1 explosives, rockets, liquid fuel and rockets with bursting charges, possibly for the making of cluster bombs which are regarded as illegal. For all we know, because we do not search the planes, there are cluster bombs coming through Shannon. We do not know what is on the military planes coming through Shannon, because we are not allowed ask what is on them because there is supposed to be nothing on them.

How can Ireland continue with this position? How can we say we have a human rights position when we will not even search planes passing through Shannon to check whether they are taking cluster bombs to places like Saudi Arabia?

10:35 am

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland does not have an arms industry. The products Ireland sells are products such as soft drink concentrates, medical and pharmaceutical products, infant foods, general industrial machinery and equipment, dairy products, medical devices, stents, pacemakers, digital media and so on. Those are the markets Irish business is selling into in Saudi Arabia and they are important markets for these companies.

Clearly, there are problems in many of the countries we deal with and the regimes can be criticised. However, we must do that through channels that can influence the human rights performance of those countries, and that is what we do. The EU human rights group in Riyadh co-ordinates the European Union's approach and Ireland is actively involved in that. We have significant trade to Saudi Arabia and those companies have valuable markets. My job is to support companies in their export diversification and these are all products that are perfectly acceptable and tradeable.