Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach for a report on his recent meeting with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel. [30082/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. I met with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, in Government Buildings on 13 June as part of his visit to Dublin to celebrate Luxembourg’s national day.

Luxembourg and Ireland enjoy excellent bilateral relations. In my meeting with Prime Minister Bettel I thanked him for his Government’s decision to open a resident Embassy in Dublin which is a very positive expression of these relations. Within the EU, Ireland and Luxembourg are often of like-mind in different policy areas and we are both very strong supporters of the Single Market. We frequently co-operate closely and effectively together.

Our meeting afforded us an opportunity to discuss a range of issues on the EU agenda, especially those for discussion at the June meeting of the European Council. On Ukraine, we were united in our commitment to standing with its government and people for as long as it takes. We both strongly condemned the destruction of the Kahkovka Dam and the enormous suffering and environmental damage that has caused. We compared notes on hosting large numbers of Ukrainians fleeing the war, noting the significant contribution they are making in our countries. We also discussed economic issues, including the need to protect and promote the Single Market.

We both want to see a competitive Europe, with an open and ambitious approach to trade and a level-playing field for business operators from all member states.

We also want to see the EU leading the world in new technologies including in shaping global standards and in making the green transition to a more sustainable future.

On irregular and illegal migration, we both agreed that this is a challenge that we need to work on collectively. No one country can deal with it on its own. We also agreed on the need for any approach to have regard for human rights and respect international law. I also took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for Luxembourg’s solidarity throughout Brexit. Following our meeting, I joined the Prime Minister at a reception, hosted by its Ambassador to Ireland, to mark Luxembourg’s national day.

Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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It is great the Taoiseach was able to welcome the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, to Dublin recently. The Prime Minister is a great friend of Ireland ever since he studied here as a student learning English in Malahide in north Dublin. I heard him speak at a conference of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, Renew Europe group in the convention centre last year and confirmed that he was really popular among the delegates who attended.

It is clear from the Taoiseach's meeting that Ireland and Luxembourg share many common values at EU level, as the Taoiseach has just outlined. Indeed, both lead three-party coalitions which include the Green Party, so they have a lot in common. It should also be noted that Luxemburg stood solidly with Ireland during the prolonged Brexit negotiations.

According to press reports, the Taoiseach briefed the Prime Minister on the consultative forum on international security policy which no doubt included Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality. Did the Taoiseach discuss the future of the EU’s common security and defence policy with Mr. Bettel and how he sees the security and defence of the EU evolving? I understand a number of embassies have contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs on the consultative forum to seek more information about it and on the Government’s position on security and defence. Perhaps it is a matter for the Tánaiste but is the Taoiseach aware of interest internationally and at EU level in the consultative forum?

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Over the last nine months, Luxembourg has taken different positions to Ireland on how to address the impact of energy hikes on domestic users and businesses. Recent figures published by EUROSTAT show that Ireland is the most expensive state in the EU with the highest energy costs and the highest health costs in the Union. CSO data tells us household energy prices have risen by 60%. Since the first quarter this year wholesale prices have fallen by 64% in the same period. Why do Irish electricity prices remain so high when prices in Europe have fallen sharply in recent months? My colleague, Deputy Doherty, wrote to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities last week calling on it to undertake an intensive and intrusive supervision of retail pricing. EUROSTAT figures also showed a slide in Irish living standards compared with our European partners for the last year. The social and economic consequences of the protracted housing and cost-of-living crises are intolerable to too many. Full employment means little to the hundreds of thousands of young people, working families and vulnerable communities for whom the social contract has been well and truly broken by Fine Gael Governments over the last decade. Does the Taoiseach accept his Government's failure to curb the cost of living and the housing crisis? Will we see a ramping up of measures in budget 2024 to address both once and for all?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The Taoiseach mentioned his discussions with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg on the issue of migration. One of the challenges that has raised its head in Ireland just recently is the issue of nursing homes. The Taoiseach may not be aware of this, but currently there is a funding crisis in respect of nursing homes, which is leading to nursing homes being closed, which in turn is leading to older people being evicted from their nursing homes. That is heartbreaking because these are the people who went through the disaster of the Covid crisis and who built the country during the course of their lives, and now, in their old age, in dementia, in Alzheimer's, they are forced to leave locations with which they are familiar, where they have friends and great support, etc.

One of the significant changes that has happened within the Department of Health is to the rules as to whether nursing homes can become locations to house refugees and asylum seekers. That change has been made just in recent times. Given that the ESRI states that we need 40,000 nursing home places, that we have only half that, that we are losing nursing homes places at a significant rate at the moment, that is, we are in reverse in respect of provision of nursing home places, is it not a serious mistake to lift the prohibition on the provision of nursing homes for accommodation for asylum seekers? Many of these homes are private. The provision of accommodation for asylum seekers is far less costly, far fewer staff are needed, etc. The business model may be more attractive for those nursing home owners to provide that accommodation and, therefore, we may lose valuable nursing home accommodation.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to follow up on migration on the basis that we are all aware of the huge openings there are and the lack of positions we have right across the health service, whether we are talking about those who work in nursing homes, those who work in home care, our speech and language therapists, SLTs, or our occupational therapists, OTs, and we know the issue we have in the building sector. Across Europe, but particularly here, given the crises we have, we need to look in a proper, holistic way at our system in respect of visa permits and whatever facilitates those people we need to keep our system going.

I assume the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister of Luxembourg dealt the energy price crisis across the board. We really need to make sure we have further movement not only at a domestic level but also at a European level. We know that that is where climate change touches the issues of security and so on.

I wish to follow up on what Deputy Haughey said. Any conversation with anybody as to where the Irish people are as regards security and defence will show that we still are utterly committed to non-alignment and military neutrality, which have served us very well.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In response to Deputy Haughey's question, Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourgish Prime Minister, is a very good friend to Ireland and has very good connections to Ireland. As the Deputy mentioned, he learned his English in Malahide as a student. I am not sure if the Deputy would have met him back then. Perhaps he did in Gibney's or somewhere else. Of course, Mr. Bettel has made previous political and personal visits to this country and is one of the leaders of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, which is the liberal group at European level, of which Fianna Fáil is a member. The fact that we are active in those groups - Fianna Fáil in ALDE-Renew, Fine Gael in the European People's Party, EPP, and the Green Party in its group - really helps in framing European decisions. Before any significant meeting, the political groups meet. The Tánaiste will attend the liberal group meeting on Thursday morning while I am attending the EPP meeting, and I know Senator Dooley does a lot as vice president in that space. It is very valuable and probably does not get the recognition it deserves sometimes.

The consultative forum took place on 22 June in UCC, on 23 June in University of Galway and on 26 and 27 June at Dublin Castle. I was pleased to attend and speak at the forum on Monday. We saw over the last few days that an open and evidence-based discussion took place, with a focus on Ireland's work to protect the rules-based international order through engagement in peacekeeping, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. As well as the current threat landscape as regards cyber, hybrid and critical infrastructure, the forum examined Ireland's current and future engagement in EU common security and defence policy and our existing relationship with NATO through the Partnership for Peace. The forum was not a binary discussion on neutrality and was never intended as such. There is no intention to change Ireland's policy of not joining a military alliance. It is, however, a fundamental duty of government to consider the changing and challenging global situation as it is today. There were more than 80 panellists from a wide range of backgrounds and with a variety of expertise and experience, including peacekeeping, arms control and disarmament, conflict resolution, cybersecurity, disinformation, maritime security and the protection of critical infrastructure. The consultation remains open for submissions online until Friday, 7 July. There is no predetermined outcome, and the Tánaiste will consider the report of the chairperson of the forum once it has been produced and will make a decision on what to do with the recommendations thereafter. There certainly has been contact from embassies and other governments about the forum, which Deputy Haughey mentioned, but they would have been to Iveagh House and the Tánaiste, so I am not really across the details of them.

I was asked about energy prices. Energy prices in Ireland are high by European standards. There are some structural reasons for that. We are at the end of the supply chain when it comes to gas, oil and coal, for example, and we have a very dispersed population so we need a lot more grid infrastructure per population than do other smaller countries that are more densely populated. That is not the only reason, however. Prices should come down. There is not a direct link between wholesale prices and retail prices but there is an indirect one. We expect to see prices for gas and electricity come down for consumers over the next few months. We have not yet decided what we will do to help families with the cost of energy in the winter coming but we will have the windfall tax coming through the Houses quite soon. That will give us ring-fenced funding that we could use to help families and small businesses with energy costs, but that is a decision yet to be taken by the Government.

As regards nursing homes, I wish to be very clear that the Government will not close any nursing homes to accommodate refugees or people seeking international protection. However, where they have been closed anyway for two years or more, it does not make sense to leave them vacant. While nursing homes are closing, there are new ones opening all the time. Very often the ones that are closing are small and would need a lot of investment to bring them up to standard and make them viable again. Often it makes sense to build a new nursing home as a new build off-site and does not make sense to leave the old nursing home vacant for more than two years when we face an accommodation crisis.

Finally, we have a well-functioning work permit system. We issued about 40,000 work permits last year. Roughly 20,000 were for people who are not from Europe and another 20,000 were for people who are not from Europe but are already in Ireland for one reason or another. The system works very well and helps us to bring in the skills we need, ranging from technology to construction and now home care and agricultural workers. That is one of the reasons I do not think it is an acceptable excuse for anyone to use the international protection system to seek to come here as an economic migrant. That is not what it is for, and that is why we need to make sure we speed up decisions in order that people who are refugees get that status quickly and that those who are not are served with deportation orders and required to leave the State.