Results 2,401-2,420 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: The following table details the variance between the agreed strength and the strength of the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service, as existed on 31st December each year between 2019 and 2021 and on 31 May 2022: 2019 2020 2021 2022 Army 518 600 690 850 Air Corps 165 140 ...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: Close protection teams comprising members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) are assigned to accompany members of Government, where warranted, on visits to overseas missions in which Defence Forces personnel are deployed. I can confirm that members of the ARW accompanied and provided close protection to the Taoiseach and/or Ministers on visits outside of the State in 2021 and to date in 2022 on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I will have to leave the meeting before 5 p.m. because I am due to speak in the Dáil on the motion of confidence that has been tabled.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I am due to speak in the Dáil at 5.07 p.m., so I will need to leave the meeting at 5 p.m.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I appreciate that. I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation to appear before the committee to discuss Ireland’s engagement at the UN Security Council and the Foreign Affairs Council since my last update in November. I also wish to update the committee on the development of the Government’s response to the war in Ukraine since my most recent update, which I gave in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I am in the committee's hands.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I thank Deputy Gannon. His proposal seems helpful. Otherwise, I could pick and choose my answers, which would not do at all, obviously. I thank Deputies Brady and Stanton for their recognition of the quality of our UN team in New York. Trust me: they are phenomenal. As to what they have done over the past four days, I was there on Friday and we thought we would get an agreement on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: Yes, that is true and this adds to that. We have multi-annual funding programmes with the World Food Programme. Interestingly, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine put in place a three-year rolling multi-annual funding programme with the World Food Programme which I think is a really good example of how most countries should do it. Food security, nutrition and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: What does the Deputy mean?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: We will be publishing the document tomorrow after we launch it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: What reforms is the Deputy talking about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: In what section of my statement is the reference contained? To what reforms is the Deputy referring?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy is right about that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I look forward to being back here, as well as in the Dáil and the Seanad, to discuss the defence decisions taken today. There will be very interesting debate on the detail of it. I can understand the disappointment in Georgia. I spoke to the Georgian ambassador here as recently as yesterday. I hosted a lunch for all the ambassadors yesterday after the national day of commemoration....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: Yes. It becomes a particular problem in the Defence Forces if disproportionate numbers of people in specialist areas are lost through headhunting. That has a cascade effect on other essential functions. That is why we are looking specifically at specialist areas. We are looking at the role of the Reserve and we are looking at civilianisation to fill some of those specialist roles, where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I would have to have the recommendation in front of me, which I do not. I will not comment on something that I do not have in front of me. Mary Robinson is heading up a body that we agreed to set up to look at the future of the Council of Europe and what it can do in the changed political environment on the Continent. There are 46 countries in the Council of Europe. Russia was expelled...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: That is not how it works. It has to apply to Ireland if it has an emergency reason to enter our airspace. Notification procedures relating occasions on when that happens are in place. The question about non-lethal support for Ukraine is fair. The programme for Government is clear. We had significant involvement in finalising the wording of the European peace facility so that every...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I will highlight one final matter. It relates to ports. The way to do this is not to try to militarily force our way into Odesa. The way to do it is through negotiation. The UN has invested much time in it, as have Turkey, Moscow and Kyiv, to try to find a solution that can get ships out of Port in Odesa safely without allowing Russian ships in to conduct a military attack. I hope that...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (7 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 208 and 209 together. Passport applicants can track the status of their passport application online via the Passport Tracker which is available on my Department's website - www.dfa.ie/passporttracking/. The information available on the Tracker has recently been upgraded and is an excellent guide as to where an application is in the system. The online Passport...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (7 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 210, 213, 215 and 218 together. With regard to the specific applications about which the Deputies have enquired, these applications are within the current turnaround times and have not yet reached their issue by date.