Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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90. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade for an update on his Department’s recent engagements with the Government of Ukraine in relation to the ongoing conflict, and efforts made to reach a ceasefire. [57185/25]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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We had a beneficial engagement with the Ukrainian ambassador, H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko, last week. She provided an update on the considerable challenges facing the Ukrainian people in their fight with the Russian Federation. The war of aggression has been going on for a number of years. There are a number of upsetting elements to it, in particular the abducted children. Will the Tánaiste give an update on the Irish Government's actions in relation to Ukraine?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the abducted children. It was brought up yesterday at the Foreign Affairs Council by the Commissioner and the European Commission now intends to hold a specific summit on this in early 2026. That is in addition to the other activities under way in the various international coalitions, including some Ireland is part of. The Deputy is right to put a spotlight on this. It is one of the particularly cruel and despicable aspects of Russia's illegal aggression and invasion of Ukraine.

I regularly engage with Ukraine's political leadership through our embassy in Kyiv and its embassy in Dublin. There is a strong channel of engagement between our Governments. At an EU level, I work closely with counterparts on the Foreign Affairs Council, together with whom we remain committed to working with Ukraine to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. The Ukrainian foreign minister frequently joins the Foreign Affairs Council by video-call. In fact he joined it yesterday in person. I also had a bilateral meeting with him last month in New York during the UN high-level week. As part of that meeting, I, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, announced a further €33.5 million in humanitarian development and peace supports which will provide crucial support for Ukrainian suffering as a result of Russian aggression.

The Taoiseach spoke to President Zelenskyy on 1 September and reaffirmed Ireland's strong support for and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The Government continues to participate in the coalition of the willing meetings. Ukraine is engaging positively and constructively in discussions on a potential ceasefire, despite the Russian military assault on its towns, cities, ports and critical infrastructure.

It is clear that one country is so far showing no interest in peace and that is Putin's Russia. We all want to give peace a chance. We all want to get to a lasting, enduring peace, but the rest of the world is talking about this while Putin is still carrying out terror activities on the civilian population. Russia is not taking seriously in any way the prospect of a ceasefire. It remains intent on escalating its aggression so we need to continue to look, at an EU level, at what we can do to increase the pressure on Putin to get him to the negotiating table. That is why we are preparing a 19th package of sanctions, which I hope the European Council will be in a position to agree later this week.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Exploration of such matters is important and a lot of what Ireland is in a position to do is at a European level. As a lot of actions are being blocked by particular member states, such as Hungary and perhaps others in other circumstances, it is important that we continue to examine what actions Ireland can take by itself.

The Tánaiste has had communication and some work has been done on dual-use technologies that potentially - inadvertently - end up in the hands of Russia to be used as weaponry. It has been a while since there has been much discussion of this, but at the start of the conflict, there was some discussion on Russian companies using section 110 shell organisations to avoid sanctions. I think some action was taken to resolve that. Is the Tánaiste satisfied that to the best of his knowledge that issue has been entirely resolved and that no sanctions are being evaded in that manner?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am satisfied that the tightening up of the sanctions regime is of significant assistance but I am also clear that there are always people looking to get around the sanctions. Russia is always looking to get around the sanctions, to be specific. That is why when the package comes forward - we need to see the 19th package agreed, I hope this week - we need to start preparation of the 20th package and a focus on the shadow fleet and removing any reliance Europe has on energy from Russia as quickly as possible.

The Deputy is right to call it out. Hungary is behaving in a really bad way in this. We have to be brutally honest about that. It is trying to block solidarity efforts. The EU 27 could not agree a statement condemning the attack by Russia on our EU delegation office in Kyiv because Hungary did not want to agree to a line that blamed Russia for the attack. That is what we are dealing with and it needs to be called out. However, we are finding ways of getting on with it. For example, while Hungary might have blocked the drawdown of funding under the European Peace Facility, EPF, we have now provided direct funding of €100 million, as the Deputy will remember, through other avenues we came up with, working with Denmark and Lithuania. We need to continue to move forward with that.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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We have discussed Ireland and the EU. If anything can be assessed from the past few years, it is that the United States still carries a huge amount of influence. Who deserves credit for various ceasefires can be debated. A peace deal in Gaza is welcome, but it is clear that where the US wishes to exert influence and pressure, it achieves results in many instances. What is the Tánaiste's assessment of the American position at this point? It seems that Russia and Vladimir Putin have been allowed to pay limited lip service to negotiations without ever having to meaningfully engage in them. They have not felt the pressure they ought to have felt. Europe is maybe attempting to exert more influence, although it is facing certain roadblocks, as we discussed. I am curious about the Tánaiste's assessment of the US position at this time and how it can more fruitfully bring pressure to bear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I genuinely believe the US Administration and President Trump want to see an end to the war. I believe they want to see a ceasefire. It is fair to say that there have been different tactical or strategic approaches to how to bring that about on both sides of the Atlantic. Europe has been clear on the sanctions and the need to exert maximum economic pressure. However, - and I say this quite objectively; I picked this up at our meeting in Luxembourg yesterday - there are now good lines of communication between European leaders and the Trump Administration. It is important we keep closely aligned on this. While we might have different political perspectives from time to time across the Atlantic Ocean, we have always cherished certain values, such as freedom, democracy, not rewarding aggression, territorial integrity and sovereignty and peace.

The idea that there is now likely to be some engagement between President Putin and President Trump on European Union soil in Hungary is somewhat provocative. We want to make sure the EU and US are very aligned on what might take place at those talks.