Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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214. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the plans to further restrict the potential flow of dual use items, technology or otherwise to Ukraine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34489/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is the national competent authority with responsibility for export controls, which includes the export of dual use goods as well as controls on defence-related exports.

Officials of that Department carry out assessments and checks on all export licence applications to ensure, as far as possible, that the item to be exported will be used by the stated end-user for the stated end-use and will not be used for illegal purposes.

The role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in relation to each export licence application, including those involving dual-use items, is to provide foreign policy observations against the eight assessment criteria of the EU’s Common Position. Those criteria include an assessment of the internal situation in that country as a function of the existence of tensions or armed conflict.

Those foreign policy observations inform the assessments carried out by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. If there are any concerns that the goods to be exported will not be used for the end use or by the specified end user as detailed in the application that application is denied by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. This also applies if the exporter does not provide enough information on the intended end-use for officials to make an informed decision.

An export licence application will be denied if it is inconsistent with Ireland’s obligations under sanctions adopted by the European Union or the United Nations.

Ireland has strongly supported EU sanctions in response to Russia’s illegal aggression in Ukraine. These targeted sanctions are the most expansive and hard-hitting sanctions in EU history. Trade restrictions on export of sensitive goods from the EU to Russia have been put in place to target specific areas, including Russia’s military, financial, energy, technology and transport sectors. We are working with EU partners to maintain and increase this pressure on Russia, including through measures to further restrict Russia's access to battlefield technologies.