Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

180. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Ireland has raised the serious matter of sustained attacks on citizens of Hungary, and consequently the EU, who are LGBTQ+ by the actions of the Hungarian government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27352/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Ireland has consistently and strongly advocated for the promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTQ+ people, including in our relations with Hungary. We have regularly raised our concerns about serious Rule of Law backsliding and the targeting of civil society and minority rights in Hungary, including in direct contacts with our Hungarian interlocutors. Through my Department’s Enlargement and Fundamental Values Fund, we support Hungarian civil society organisations that work to protect the rule of law, civil society space and minority - including LGBTQ+ - rights in Hungary.

Ireland has supported legal efforts by the Commission to ensure that Hungary abides by its obligations as an EU Member State. In 2023, Ireland intervened in support of the Commission’s infringement procedure on Hungary’s so-called “Child Protection Act” which represented a flagrant form of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. In February 2025, we intervened in support of the Commission’s case on Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Law, which seriously threatens civil society space and independent media.

In March, our Embassy joined 21 diplomatic missions in Budapest in calling on Hungarian authorities to repeal the recent law providing a basis to ban Budapest Pride on the pretext of child protection.

At this week’s General Affairs Council, my colleague Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, Thomas Byrne, raised this issue with his Hungarian counterpart during an Article 7 hearing, noting Ireland’s serious concern with recent legislation which infringes on EU law. Ireland – along with a large majority of EU Member States – joined a Declaration outlining our deep concern, and calling on Hungary to reverse these measures.

We will continue to closely monitor developments and raise our concerns with relevant interlocutors, as well as supporting civil society organisations working to defend the Rule of Law and protect minority rights in Hungary.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

181. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the response the Government has had with regard to the actions of Iran, where the UN recently reported that 901 people were executed there in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27403/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am deeply concerned by the continued and wide spread use of the death penalty in Iran. Iran has significantly increased its executions in recent years, and now reportedly carries out more than half of all the executions in the world outside China. Accordingly, the death penalty is a principal focus of Ireland's engagement with Iran on human rights issues. Ireland is strongly opposed to the use of the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. The final and irreversible nature of the death penalty underlines the impropriety of its use as a criminal punishment. Accordingly, Ireland continues to seek its abolition, in Iran and universally.

Ireland raises the issue of the death penalty privately and bilaterally in our contacts with Iranian leaders and officials in Ireland and Iran, including in the last round of political consultations with representatives of the Iranian Foreign Ministry held in Dublin in 2024. We also do so publicly and multilaterally, in the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council. In January, Ireland raised the continued use of the death penalty at the most recent Universal Periodic Review of Iran at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Ireland has regularly co-sponsored an annual resolution on human rights in Iran at the General Assembly.

We will continue to raise the issue of the continued use of the death penalty directly with Iranian officials and also at the EU and international level.