Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí. Fáiltím roimh an deis a bheith anseo leo ar maidin. Measaim gurb é seo an chéad uair a bhí mé anseo ó cheapadh mé i m'Aire Stáit le freagracht as gnóthaí Eorpacha agus cosaint. Táim ag súil le dul i dteagmháil leis na Seanadóirí sna seachtainí agus míonna atá romhainn. Gabhaim buíochas leo freisin as an méid atá ráite acu ar maidin. Tá dúshlán ollmhór romhainn in Éirinn agus san Aontas Eorpach.

lreland's prosperity requires a well-functioning, competitive and open Single Market with fair access to global markets. This in turn requires a stable and secure international environment and certainty. "Certainty" is an important word. The international environment today faces significant challenges. The war in Ukraine is far from the only conflict impacting on wider security. The Irish Government has displayed a leadership role in many as aspects of that. The Government has also showed leadership on other very important issues. Gaza was mentioned by numerous Senators. By any standard, the Irish Government has displayed a leadership role in the world and in multilateral organisations. There are also conflicts in Syria and Lebanon and other conflicts.

We deeply regret the announcements on tariffs made by President Trump yesterday in Washington DC. They were trailed in advance. The Government actively prepared for them but we had hoped they could be avoided. Nobody wins from tariffs. The Government will review the situation with our EU partners and prepare the best way to respond. The EU will have to respond in a proportionate manner which protects our businesses and citizens. It is important to remember when talking about the EU that we are the EU, along with the other member states, the European Parliament and the peoples of Europe. We will do so in a calm, strategic and measured fashion. We continue to seek negotiated solutions. President Trump to some extent invited this yesterday. It is essential to ensure that we continue dialogue and negotiation. There is always time to strike a fair deal. The EU response to the previous steel and aluminium tariff is currently planned to come into effect in mid-April. This, of course, will be reviewed in the context of yesterday's announcements. The tariffs on the automotive sector will also be taken into account. We do not often think of the automotive sector as an important industry in Ireland, but it is important in east Galway and Donegal. There are many places around this country which supply the global automobile industry, including in America.

I welcome the engagement the EU has undertaken to date in the design of rebalancing measures so that they strike the right balance of products, taking into account the interests of EU producers, exporters and consumers. The one parallel I can remember is the economic war with Britain. Irish whiskey was one of the most popular products in the world. It was a major exporting product for decades. Prohibition in America cut off a lot of the markets and the trade war with the British empire at the time cut off the rest of the market. The Irish whiskey sector was reduced to a small number of distilleries until the 1980s or 1990s. That has started to increase significantly and we seem to have them all over the country again now.

It remains to be seen what the approach to tariffs will be for the pharmaceutical sector. We cannot take anything for granted. There is much uncertainty. The sector appears to be exempt from the tariffs announced last night. The pharmaceutical sector has operated with zero tariffs for 30 years, reflecting the core importance of access to medicines for citizens everywhere. Zero means no added tariffs and no extra prices for drugs for US consumers and zero tariffs on products coming into the EU. That is why there will be no winners if tariffs are applied.

We believe in, and depend on, free and open trade. I hear many people saying that we need to expand the small and medium enterprise sector in our economy, and I fully agree. We need to expand those companies to enable them to sell to the world. Our Republic has a population of just over 5 million and the island has a population approaching 7 million. We do not have a huge market on this island so we depend, including for our small and medium enterprises, on sales to the European Union and the rest of the world. As someone mentioned, we also depend on sales into companies that are selling to the rest of the world.

The EU-US trade in goods and services reached €1.6 trillion in 2023. It is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world and one that Ireland has benefited greatly from. The modern economy deals less with the physical goods that cross the border and is driven by services. That tells us a very different story and reveals how integrated our economies are. There is a trade surplus in goods between Ireland and the US but there is a trade deficit in services. That means we have an overall trade deficit with the US in the order of €113 billion. As we all know, the Ireland and US economic relationship extends wider than trade. As has also been mentioned, Ireland is the sixth largest source of foreign direct investment into the US. Investment by Irish companies in 2023 was worth $351 billion.

We must remain calm and measured in our approach and endeavour to de-escalate the current dispute. This will be achieved through engagement, negotiation and compromise. Tomorrow's trade forum will be an opportunity for the Government to update stakeholders and businesses and listen to their feedback. The Government's strategy is to optimise the protection of Irish jobs. Our key priority is to protect jobs, our economy and the investment coming into this country. We have had a lot of engagement with our European Union partners and other Governments. We have engaged with the European Commission. The Tánaiste will travel to Luxembourg on Monday to meet with other EU trade ministers and Commissioner Maroš Šefovi. I met the Commissioner in Brussels. The Taoiseach has been in touch with President von der Leyen. The Tánaiste has also spoken to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and, of course, the Taoiseach has spoken directly to President Trump. That engagement will continue.

The calm and measured approach has been set at the top by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, and I hope by me. That shows we are serious about this issue. We want the trade relationship to continue to develop. We want to send forward the clear message that tariffs benefit nobody. American people will not benefit from tariffs and we certainly will not benefit either.

A number of other issues have been raised. The triple lock is completely separate from this particular issue, which is of economic sensitivity for our country. To be clear, what we are looking for in respect of the triple lock is the removal of the ability of the countries with a veto on the Security Council, namely, Russia, China, the US, the UK and France, to veto our decision, as a Government and a Dáil, to ask Irish troops to be a part of peacekeeping missions. That is what we are doing. It is as simple as that. It is not the case that Russia has not vetoed in recent years.There have not been any new peacekeeping missions authorised by the Security Council since, I think, 2014. In fact, during our presidency and membership of the Security Council, which, by the way, has the sole responsibility for peace and security in the world and is the only organisation at the UN that can bind countries, we put forward a proposal that climate would be dealt with at the Security Council in the context of the security of the world. At the time, we had France, the UK and the US on board. I met the Chinese ambassador in New York when I was there; the Chinese abstained. Guess what? The Russians vetoed it, and climate is not part of the agenda of the Security Council because of the Russian veto. Russia does use the veto at the Security Council, therefore, and I think it is time to end the Russian veto on our foreign and defence policy. That is what the triple lock resolution will do.

My party, and our predecessors Frank Aiken, Éamon de Valera and many others including Brian Lenihan senior, and Deputy Micheál Martin as foreign Minister and Taoiseach, have an enviable track record in multilateralism and working at the UN. Frank Aiken went there for months on end to negotiate, and we are very proud of that legacy. However, we cannot abide a situation where the Russian Federation has a veto on our foreign policy.

With regard to Israel and Palestine, our engagement is guided by our long-standing and principled position, namely, respect for international law; respect for the equal right to self-determination, peace, security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike; and unwavering support for the two-state solution, which, by the way, was an idea of Brian Lenihan senior as foreign Minister almost 50 years ago.

Other situations in the Middle East also demand our attention, including Iran and Yemen. Most urgent is the need to prevent a resumption of full conflict in Lebanon and to support an inclusive transition in Syria. I know the Tánaiste discussed these issues with Lebanese ministers during his visit to Lebanon last week. The visit also affirmed our commitment to the work of Ireland’s Defence Forces in UNIFIL and to supporting the people of Lebanon.

I thank Senators for their contributions on the urgent topic of the trade tariffs that have been imposed. I must also make a plea in this debate for across-the-board support for trade agreements in principle. When people complain about tariffs and trade barriers, the only answer to them is trade agreements. The European Union is one of the most important trade agreements we have entered into. Most of the Opposition parties, at various times, have opposed this. We had the Canada trade agreement, and there was even a Supreme Court case about that. People opposed that. We were told it was a threat to our sovereignty. It actually reduces or eliminates tariffs on trade with Canada, which is the key to our economic prosperity.

The Mercosur agreement has been mentioned as well. We have very serious concerns about the text as it stands but I do no think that should take away from the fact that we depend on trade. We want trade and we want to be able to sell our goods into South America but we do not want unfiltered and substandard products coming into our market. We do not want environmental destruction to result from the Mercosur agreement but we have to say that we want trade agreements and want to work might and main regarding Mercosur to satisfy the concerns we have. We hope and expect that the Commission will come back with a different proposal that can deal with the questions we have. The reality is that is another market where Ireland, as a country that sells far more goods than it takes in, could benefit from selling goods into once we have addressed the concerns that have been raised.