Results 241-260 of 46,414 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Ireland played its role on the peace secretariat. We had two to three diplomats working on the peace secretariat. We had a member of our Defence Forces who oversaw the decommissioning of weaponry in Mozambique. One of the secrets of good Irish diplomacy and work is trying to bring peace to other parts of the world. We have real problems in Cabo Delgado, where there is violence from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We do not impose sanctions unilaterally. Trade is an EU function and together with our EU partners, we have imposed sanctions on settlers in the West Bank. We got agreement but it was difficult to get an agreement with 27 member states as one member state was holding out for quite some time. It was on 19 March that we adopted that agreement. We also placed sanctions on Hamas focused on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I would have to come back to the Deputy on the estimates in Israel. There are four or five citizens and about 30 dependants in Gaza at the moment. We have taken out about 100 between citizens and dependants. While I said we did take out the full 100, there has been a new channel opened up in terms of a private channel. However, we did facilitate those who came out of that channel with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I will get figures for the Deputy on the others.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes. For some time now, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, the UAE, Egypt and Qatar have been working on an Arab peace initiative framework that would endeavour to be as comprehensive as possible, embracing Palestinian self-determination, a ceasefire in Gaza, guarantees to Israel's security, normalisation in terms of the Israeli-Saudi relationship and so on. Our officials were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is difficult and challenging. Israel does not appreciate or like the Irish position, to put it mildly. We have always been consistent in saying we are not anti-Israel or the Israeli people. However, we make our judgments and observations and take positions on this situation through the prism of international humanitarian law, the UN charter, and the need for a two-state solution and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes. They are extremely anxious. We underestimate the degree to which these countries see this as existential. When one meets the foreign ministers of these countries, it is a completely different narrative and expression to what one would see from ourselves or others. They are very worried that were Ukraine to fall, they would be next. We can already see threatening behaviour....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not members of NATO, and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We are not, in terms of our military neutrality. However, there is a clause of mutual solidarity in the European Union, which means we would support - in any way we can - such as the way we are supporting Ukraine right now. However, that has never been tested.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: That has been approved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Is the Deputy asking in terms of the military assistance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Is the Deputy referring to the training with EUMAM Ukraine?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: That has been very effective, insofar as the number of Ukrainian military and soldiers that have been trained and so on. Ireland has participated in a number of programmes. We provided training to about 455 members of the Ukrainian armed forces. These modules have been in tactical combat, casualty care, drill instruction training, demining and the use of mine flails. There are eight Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: It does not bear thinking about.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: The size of our contribution will be 182 participants. I can get the details for the Deputy, but it is in different phases. Its group headquarters consist of four personnel, a mechanised infantry company with a company HQ and two platoons, a weapons platoons consisting of 139 personnel together with a national support element consisting of 29 persons providing the necessary transport,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I gave that answer to the Dáil last week. There are frozen Russian assets and we are talking about the windfall revenue generated as a result of the interest. I can get the precise figure for the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Generally speaking, I do not use that juxtaposition. I do not know where the figure comes from but I presume it is our net contribution more generally. I have read the report and presumably it is some extrapolation of our overall net contribution. Ireland is a net contributor to the European Union. We do not have a strong defence industry in Ireland. That is why we do not draw down...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I think the Deputy's points are very valid. In my case, it was fake advertising encouraging people to get involved in a cryptocurrency company and they can become a millionaire. I was described as a millionaire, which I am not. I caught the one on X, there was one on Google and there was a series on X that was more refined. There was the Irish Independent and a journalist from the Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: They do not all have to be foreign actors. I know of one case in Ireland in the last general election where there was a significant victim of this and it had impacts.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is quite shocking that Sudan is getting nowhere near the profile that the humanitarian crisis that is Sudan represents. It is one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent human history. It has generated the world's largest internal displacement and hunger crisis. On 3 May, the famine early warning system network warned of famine with millions of people experiencing severe hunger. The...