Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I formally second Senator Martin's Bill. It is excellent, insightful legislation. It is very simple and straightforward but much needed, especially where applications regarding coercive control come into play.

I congratulate and thank the Minister for Rural and Community Development for her announcement yesterday on the local enhancement programme. The constituency of Dublin South-Central featured nicely on the list, for which I am very grateful. An award of €24,000 was made to St. John Bosco Youth Centre. That is no small sum and it reflects the fantastic work the centre does, led by Brian Murphy. These community enhancement funds and local enhancement programmes are vital.

My main objective this morning is to talk about the very worrying development in politics that we have seen reported today, namely China's launching of military war games around Taiwan in response to – it uses the word "punishment" – the fact that Taiwan's newly elected president has vowed to defend democracy. The vow to defend democracy of the new president, who has been elected in a democratic process, has brought about punitive action by China. Over recent years, I have worked with many Irish companies in respect of their supply chains and strategic management and I have noted that many of them, including very small ones, outsource to China. If China were to make an intervention in Taiwan tomorrow, the world would clamour for sanctions and supply chains in Ireland would be hit immediately, in the same way that Russia's murderous invasion of Ukraine brought about a supply-chain and economic disruption.

Today, the Critical Raw Materials Act of the EU has come into being. It pertains to 34 critical raw materials within the EU, such as those that are critical to some of our technology and production in Ireland. We are now obliged to ensure that 10% of the 34 critical raw materials are extracted from within the EU, 25% are recycled within the EU and 40% are processed in the EU. The response in Ireland is that we are going to need 15 more mines throughout the country so we can source the likes of zinc at home. This is part of the EU's economic security strategy, published last year. The laws flowing from that strategy are coming into being to secure the Union and supply chains for critical businesses and employers in this country. It is good legislation and businesses need to be made aware of it. We need statements in the House on the European economic security strategy. We need to be able to discuss and explore its implications for Ireland and its business sector.