Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Jul 2024

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 7, inclusive, together.

There are a number of proposals for constitutional reforms under consideration. However, no final decisions have been made as yet by Government on the timing of any such referendum. Some of the proposed constitutional reforms arise from the programme for Government, such as housing and extending the franchise for presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside the State. Other proposals, such as the EU Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, arise from existing legal requirements. In respect of the referendum that would be required for the Unified Patent Court, the Government decided that more time was necessary to ensure there would be a full opportunity to debate and understand the issues at hand. However, the Government does remain strongly in support of the Unified Patent Court. That said, the area of patents and patent law is undoubtedly highly technical, and it is not unreasonable, therefore, to allow more time. There is also a commitment regarding ownership of water services, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will bring forward proposals in due course for Government's consideration on those matters.

The matter I want to raise with the Taoiseach is the promise to extend the franchise for presidential elections. As the Taoiseach knows, we are something of an outlier in not allowing any opportunity for citizens living outside of the jurisdiction to participate in any electoral contest.

There had been an agreement and wide consensus that the election of the first citizen, Uachtarán na hÉireann, would be the occasion on which we would extend the franchise, particularly to the North of Ireland. Irish citizens living in Ireland should be given this democratic opportunity, at a minimum. This is a programme for Government commitment. We were told in April 2022 and Government vowed, no less, that the referendum would take place before 2024. In April last year, we learned that was unlikely to be held in time to impact the next presidential election.

Why is there a delay? Why has this been consistently pushed down the pipe? It is not a contentious matter. I will grant that the framing of the franchise needs to be carefully considered. We all accept that. This was a settled matter. I feel it is particularly acute for Irish citizens living in the North of Ireland that this matter is still being stalled. It is not acceptable.

I would like to talk about the right to housing. Rickets, anaemia, faltering growth, extreme tooth decay and scabies are just some of the extreme health conditions now being reported by medical professionals regarding children living in emergency accommodation across this State. There are now 4,316 kids living in emergency accommodation. Ten years ago, the figure was just 700. With Fine Gael in government, those numbers rise month after month after month. Many of these kids have been living in emergency accommodation for more than two years. I put it to the Taoiseach that his is either a Government of deliberate cruelty or a Government of incompetence. If it has chosen not to act decisively to prevent child homelessness, it is a Government of deliberate cruelty. If it has tried to stop it or at least tried to reverse the rise, then it has failed utterly and is a Government of incompetence. Which one is it? While the Taoiseach is at it, he might tell us when he will give the people a referendum on the right to housing.

I want to ask about the consequences of the defeated care referendum. I think the Taoiseach knows and we all know that a significant part of why that was defeated was the anger of people with disabilities, special needs, carers, and so on, about the failure of the Government to include real rights for carers and people with disability in the Constitution. I do not anticipate that the Government will have another referendum of that sort in the term of this Government but it seems to me that it has an obligation to heed the message that was sent from carers and people with disabilities. I want to know what the Taoiseach will do in response to the clear message that was sent. He promised that the Government would ratify the optional protocol to the UNCRPD, which would give real rights to people with disabilities. Is the Government going to do it and when? Will the Government get rid of means testing for carers and disability allowances, which is effectively trapping carers and people with disabilities in poverty, particularly women? What is the Taoiseach going to do about the absolutely shocking situation with the provision of assessments for children with special needs and the services?

I wrote to the Taoiseach about the case I raised with him last week about Margaret, whose child was diagnosed with autism and an intellectual disability in 2023. They were referred for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and a psychologist and were due to see the speech and language therapist in July, this month, then received a letter saying they would not get the speech and language therapy until January of 2026. This kind of thing has to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The programme for Government makes a commitment to hold a referendum on housing. The time of this Government is coming to an end one way or another. It is simply a matter of months before the next election. The Housing Commission went off and proposed wording which states:

1°: The State recognises that having a home is of fundamental importance to quality of life and that access to adequate housing, by facilitating the development of family, social and community relationships, promotes the common good.

2°: The State therefore guarantees to every citizen a right of access to adequate housing and pledges, as far as practicable, by its laws to protect and vindicate that right.

Does the Taoiseach agree with that wording? Does he think a referendum should be held within the lifetime of this Government to insert that into the Constitution? All the indications are that this Government does not seek to vindicate people's right to housing. That is why we have more than 4,000 children growing up in homelessness. I also want to make the point that it is now almost ten years since Jonathan Corrie died not far from the gates of Leinster House. At that time, it was said this was a scourge and should never happen again but, at the weekend, two men drowned tragically. It seems very unlikely that they would have drowned if they had not been rough sleeping. It seems their drowning is linked to their being homeless. I would also say that in the investigation there, something that needs to be looked at is whether the additional barriers that have been erected around the canal had any role to play in where those men had located their tents and whether that contributed to their awful death.

I will also deal with right to housing. I brought up the issue before of the affordable housing scheme in Cois Farraige in Blackrock, just outside Dundalk. I am expecting word back. First and foremost, €305,000 is not affordable for a huge number of people in the general Dundalk area. Only five of those who applied qualified when there were meant to be ten houses offered. Louth County Council will also say there is a definite issue with the criteria, so this needs to be looked at. I previously brought up the issue of rentals. I will read out what one of my constituents said to me.

She said this is outrageous. It is €5,000 a month for a four-bedroom house in Dundalk. She asked what our politicians and TDs are doing to stop this and how the younger generation will be able to stay in Ireland and have a home, whether buying or renting. She said that once these prices start hitting Dundalk, more landlords will be looking to possibly put people's rent up. She said we need laws and caps on rent to stop this. She currently has two adult children who are both working and cannot think about buying or renting in Ireland. She said it is disgraceful and nothing is being done, and that she hopes the local Sinn Féin TDs will move to stop this nonsense and give the next generation a chance.

Obviously Sinn Féin has our proposals to address just how dysfunctional the rental sector is and a three-year ban on rent increases to allow for supply to change the circumstances, because the market has failed people miserably, and insufficient action has been taken. Like this lady here, people are worried about the future for their children. Not enough has been done and something has to be done immediately. That is how bad things are.

I will take these questions in the order they were asked. Deputy McDonald raised the franchise for the presidential elections. I have not had an opportunity to comment on this since I became Taoiseach. I am in favour of this proposal and acting on it. The Deputy is right that the programme for Government contains a commitment to that. In line with that commitment, the Government restored the Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Presidential Elections) Bill 2019 to the Dáil Order Paper. The date for holding a referendum will be decided once legislation is passed. The Deputy knows all of that. We need to have an honest conversation about where we are at this stage in the cycle, both with regard to what is left in this Dáil term and the context of the next presidential election.

As the Deputy says, it was already indicated previously by Government that these changes would not be in place in time for the next presidential election. My understanding is that if a referendum on extending the franchise for presidential elections were to be passed by the people, implementing legislation would be required in addition to making the necessary practical arrangements to enable an extended franchise to participate in future presidential elections. I am told that international best practice would recommend that these arrangements should be settled at least 12 months in advance of a presidential poll.

I understand the Deputy's frustration and accept her legitimate question. I am happy to work to see if we can develop a political consensus around the timeline for that, bearing in mind that, at this stage, it will probably straddle this Dáil and the next. I am happy to engage with the Deputy. I will do some thinking on it and correspond with the Deputy on the matter.

To answer to Deputy Barry's question is that the Government is neither cruel nor incompetent. The Government is dealing with a significant intergenerational housing crisis which we can debate, and do, but the Government is not cruel. It is also dealing with a significant increase in migration numbers. There are many opportunities, as we discussed, in positive immigration, which I know, but those challenges intertwine on occasion in the monthly numbers that are now published. We are investing significant resources in trying to make real progress on social and affordable housing, housing supply in general and investing more in emergency accommodation. We continue to do that. The Deputy and I can debate how best we believe we can rectify that. That is the truth. Certainly, nobody in Government is cruel in relation to this matter.

On a referendum on the right to housing, I have no issue with that or consideration of putting the latter in the Constitution. The wording the Deputy read out is not something I find objectionable. There are questions, however. First, in the midst of a housing crisis, it is a little like the care referendum, although I do not want to conflate the questions. I met many people on the doorsteps who might have liked words in the Constitution around care but would have liked a speech and language or occupational therapist a lot more. It is never for us to second guess the Irish people but to be truthful, a reason the referendum was voted down significantly was that people thought constitutional change is grand, but can the Government roll up its sleeves and get stuck in on disability services, children's disability network teams and assessments of need. Passing wording on housing will not address the housing crisis in the here and now. I am not sure we will get to this in the lifetime of this Government in terms of a referendum on housing. There has been no firm Government decision, that is just my honest evaluation of the situation.

To Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, we heard a message. I am not being partisan or political - we all need to reflect on the message the electorate sent during the referendums. It probably was not one message but there was a message for us in the need to do more for carers. I personally met carers' groups with the Minister for Social Protection, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities and others recently about their legitimate asks and expectations of the next budget. We will continue to engage with them in the days and weeks ahead.

It is our intention to ratify the optional protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. My understanding is that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will bring an update to Cabinet this month. I have been clear that I want to see us ratify it this year. That is what we are working towards.

I join Deputy Paul Murphy in expressing my sympathy to the families and friends of Donal Scanlon and Alex Warnick, both of whom tragically passed away at the Grand Canal in Dublin over the weekend. We think of both of them, their families and their friends. The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive confirmed that both men had engaged with its services. It has also advised that there is sufficient emergency accommodation in Dublin. I urge anybody seeking accommodation to please contact their local authority because the message from the executive is that it has emergency accommodation.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 15, inclusive, together.

The Government continues to prioritise and progress the shared island initiative. Our commitment is to work with all communities and political traditions for a shared future, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. On 20 February, the Government announced the largest ever package of funding for cross-Border investments. This included a commitment of €600 million for the A5 north-west transport corridor and for progressing linked road projects in counties Donegal and Monaghan. The Government also made allocations this year from the shared island fund to contribute to the redevelopment of Casement Park in Belfast; to introduce from this autumn an hourly rail service between Dublin and Belfast; to move ahead with construction of the landmark Narrow Water bridge; to create a renewed visitor experience at the Battle of the Boyne site and; for new cross-Border co-operation schemes on enterprise development and tackling educational disadvantage.

I was delighted to be in Omeath, County Louth, on 4 June to mark the commencement of construction of the Narrow Water Bridge, a transformational project for tourism and the region, and to be in Clones, County Monaghan, on 19 June to visit the stunning new canal basin marina at an event to mark the completion of phase 2 of the Ulster Canal. The shared island fund is helping to facilitate the delivery of these landmark cross-Border infrastructure projects, both of which were commitments under the programme for Government and in the new decade, new approach agreement. These and the Government's other shared island investment commitments are taken forward by Ministers working with their Northern Ireland Executive and British Government counterparts and with local authority, education and civil society partners across the island. A full list of shared island funding projects is available on gov.ie.

The Government is also working to develop more investment opportunities with the Northern Ireland Executive, through the North-South Ministerial Council and with the British Government to deepen North-South and east-west relationships. I look forward to working with the new British Government in this regard, and, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, to further developing connections between people across these islands. My Department’s shared island unit co-ordinates a wide-ranging research programme, the output of which will be very interesting. We are fostering inclusive civic dialogue on people’s common concerns across the island for the future in the areas of our economy, society, culture and in political terms.

The most recent ESRI shared island research report was published on 10 April on gender and labour market inclusion in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Further work by the ESRI has been commissioned on income distribution levels and tackling child poverty across the island. Both are due to be published later this year. The shared island youth forum, which I launched last September, brings together 80 young civic representatives aged 18-25. The forum has met nine times to develop an overall statement of its vision and values for a shared island, to be published in the autumn. A brilliant group of young people will share with us their views for the future of the island. The shared island dialogue series will also continue in the autumn, with contributions from people from a range of different perspectives on what achieving a more reconciled island requires in societal terms in the time ahead.

Through the shared island initiative, the Government is investing in quality of life and opportunity for people, North and South, and interacting with all communities on how we can better share this island we all love, however it may be constituted, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.

If you do not have the right bus ticket in Belfast, you will be fined £50 by Translink. Yesterday, a Belfast court ruled that a young man had to pay £50 to his former partner for repeated horrifying assaults that included punching, headbutting and holding a knife to her throat. The sentence was suspended and a two-year restraining order was put in place. Just weeks after thousands joined protests down here to stand with Natasha O'Brien and to oppose misogyny in the courts, a significant crowd joined an emergency stand out in Belfast, organised by ROSA social feminist movement. Unfortunately, part of the shared island heritage is a heritage of both male violence against women and misogyny in the courts systems. With Stormont up and running and a new Government in Westminster, will the Taoiseach agree that all governments have a great deal of catching up to do and that this needs to be done quickly?

The Taoiseach uttered a jibe earlier around the issue of housing north of the Border, which causes me to raise and remind him that the North is grossly underfunded, which is now a recognised fact. The pressures will be felt most acutely in health and education. We have been clear with people from the get-go on that. I ask that rather than taking potshots at me or Michelle O'Neill indirectly, on the issue of funding, that the Taoiseach raises that issue with Keir Starmer. The British Government claims and has jurisdiction at this point - lamentably, in my view - and therefore has a duty to fund the place correctly. On a brighter note, there is a commitment to Casement Park and the delivery of that landmark project.

The British Government needs to make clear what its financial contribution will be. It is indicating that it might come back looking for a bit more from Dublin. Will the Taoiseach set out to the House his ongoing commitment to Casement Park and a willingness to fairly meet the share on behalf of the Dublin Government?

Sadly, one of the things we share on this island, North and South, is a very severe housing crisis affecting tens of thousands of people who are on council housing waiting lists. Down here it is 57,000 officially but actually nearer to 100,000 when one takes into account the HAP and RAS transfer lists. In the North 47,000 people are waiting for social housing, 35,000 of whom are considered to be in serious housing stress. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has just announced - Keir Starmer does not delay in disappointing - that the new Labour Party Government in the UK, faced with a very severe housing crisis there, is not going to directly build council housing anymore but is going to rely on the private sector to deliver housing. It is absolutely shocking. I suggest that the Taoiseach would point out to Keir Starmer that this policy has been a disastrous failure. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have pursued it for a couple of decades and it has left us with the worst housing crisis we have ever seen because they left it up to private developers to deliver housing rather than the State directly building council housing on public land. It would be a disaster if Starmer's new policy is the way they try to address the housing crisis in the North.

What action has the Taoiseach taken to implement the all-island rail review? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, transport emissions increased again last year. To reach the legally binding target for transport, they must fall 12% this year and by 12% next year. It is very likely that this simply will not happen and then the cut from 2026 to 2030 will have to be even bigger. Radical transformative measures are needed to get people out of cars and onto public transport. A lot of measures were recommended to the Government a year ago in the all-island rail review. It recommended, for example, upgrading the intercity rail network to at least dual track. This would enable an increase in service frequencies to every hour or half hour between the major cities and would reduce journey times by up to 50%. The review also recommended more direct services between the east and south coasts, the reinstatement of the western rail corridor and the south Wexford railway, and the extension of rail into Tyrone, Derry and Donegal. What has the Government done to implement these recommendations?

I very much welcome the strong message that the shared island initiative will continue to identify more investment opportunities on a cross-Border and all-Ireland basis, and quite rightly. The Ulster Canal project would not have proceeded without funding from the shared island initiative. We have so much potential in the whole area of waterways development, allied to the Shannon-Erne Waterway.

About two years ago, the then Tánaiste launched a number of feasibility studies that are currently under way by local authorities North and South; for example, Cavan and Monaghan county councils are working with their counterparts north of the Border. Much of it is based on enterprise: the development of enterprise centres and the development of innovation hubs. I am very anxious that this particular study within the shared island initiative would be advanced. One thing we need in the Border counties, and particularly in the areas where local authorities have a very poor rates base and are not able to raise revenue themselves, is to get some assistance towards the development of workspaces in enterprise centres. Quite regularly enterprises talk to me about the need to get more space which they cannot afford to provide themselves. I would love to see the enterprise initiative advanced within the shared island initiative.

We all welcome the plans for Narrow Water Bridge but we need to make sure it is built on time and within budget. I welcome a lot of the research from the shared island initiative but we need to look at research and modelling on a higher level. I do not believe I would shock anyone by saying that I believe the State has a responsibility to prepare for the possibility of constitutional change on the island. We have to look at the changed nature of the electoral map and demographics and all the other factors with regard to the North. I commend all of those who stood. I congratulate those who were successful, particularly my own party colleagues, but there is a huge body of work that needs to be done. I have spoken to the Taoiseach previously in relation to the issues affecting cross-Border workers that need to be addressed. At least we have an Executive up and running. Dr. Caoimhe Archibald as minister for the economy and Conor Murphy as minister for finance will not be found wanting. I apologise, I mean Dr. Caoimhe Archibald as Minister of Finance and Conor Murphy as Minister for the Economy. I have been corrected and rightfully so in this case and not for the first time.

I thank colleagues for raising a number of issues. Without commenting on individual decisions of the courts, it is absolutely the case that the epidemic of violence by men against women and attacking women does not stop at any border. I say in the spirit of co-operation that there is more we can do on the island together. I know we will have willing interlocutors in the Northern Ireland Executive in relation to this matter.

I am not making jibes at Deputy McDonald, but we do engage in politics on occasion, which I respect. I also take very seriously the role that I currently have as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. I take that extremely seriously. I have said it to the First Minister of Northern Ireland. I had a very good meeting with her and with the deputy First Minister. I am very eager to continue to have that and am absolutely very eager to support the Northern Ireland Executive in each and every way we can. I will do that in all of my conversations with the new British Prime Minister.

I genuinely believe that in the Governments of Ireland and Britain and the Northern Ireland Executive, we now have leadership in place that wants to fulfil the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement. I welcome the changed approach that the British Government has indicated and I know the Deputy does too. It is a moment for reset, as I have heard the Deputy, Keir Starmer and the First Minister say too. Over the next period of time we must all show what we mean by that and show what that reset looks like in action. We must have the reset and show the people of these islands what such a reset actually looks like. Yes, I will continue to support the First Minister and deputy First Minister. We are engaging with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive and there is a very welcome programme of engagement between Ministers North and South. I have been looking at that list of those bilateral meetings that are taking place. We are due to have a plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Dublin in September.

On the issue of Casement Park, I welcome the comments in recent days by Hilary Benn, the new Northern Ireland Secretary of State, in which he said he is committed to the project. We are very committed to it as well. The Deputy will be aware that we have already indicated a financial commitment and we will not be found wanting in continuing to work with the British Government on this. I hope to have a chance to talk to the British Prime Minister about this when we meet formally next week. I still think we should keep the ambition alive of delivering this project in time for Euro 2028. It would be a terrible shame and a terrible pity for these islands to host the tournament and for a game not to be played in Northern Ireland. I will work with the Deputy constructively on that and with the Northern Ireland Executive and the British Government.

On Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, I doubt the British Prime Minister wants my advice on policy measures outside of those relating to the Good Friday Agreement and our role as co-guarantor. I look forward to engaging with him on any topic. I thank the Deputy for his perspective.

Deputy Murphy asked about emissions. We saw very encouraging figures from the EPA today. I accept the point made by the Deputy that when we look at different sectors, we can show there is more work to be done in some areas than in others. We have seen a significant reduction in our emissions targets. I will get an update for the Deputy on the timeline for the all-island rail review. I am conscious that I am over time.

Deputy Brendan Smith raised a very good idea about workplace enterprise centres, which somewhat ties in with Deputy Ó Murchú's question on whether we can use the shared island initiative and the Northern Ireland Executive to look at issues around workers, enterprise, co-working spaces and cross-Border workers. I will engage with both Deputies on that.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 19, inclusive, together.

I attended the summit on peace in Ukraine hosted by Switzerland on 15 and 16 June, together with over 50 other world leaders and over 100 countries and international organisations. As world leaders gathered for this important summit to talk about peace, Russia continued its relentless attacks on Ukraine, including the targeting of civilian infrastructure. The summit agreed a joint communiqué which was signed by most countries participating. This important document, crucially, makes clear that any just and lasting peace must be based on the principles of the UN Charter, respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence.

The summit also agreed a practical and tangible path for follow-up on areas where there is broad agreement, including food security, nuclear safety and the return of prisoners, children and civilians. At the summit, I also participated in a round-table discussion on humanitarian issues, especially the appalling and unacceptable removal, abduction really, by Russia of thousands of Ukrainian children from their homes and families. Some have been taken to Russia and some to temporarily occupied territories, where they are assigned Russian citizenship and sometimes adopted into Russian families and where efforts are made to undermine and overwrite their Ukrainian culture.

This is a war crime, and I am not sure the world is talking about it enough or perhaps is even aware of it enough. I refer to the scale of the number of children who have been kidnapped, abducted and robbed from their parents. Some young babies have been taken from their homes. They have been snatched away. The terror and horror of this do not bear thinking about. We need to acknowledge it and call it out. While we work for peace in Ukraine, we need to look at what can be done in the here and now, including how governments like ours can better support organisations like UNICEF and the Red Cross that are doing work in this area, how the churches may have a role to play and how some countries that continue to have dialogue with Russia can potentially play a role as well. I acknowledge that countries like Qatar have played a role in returning some children to their families. I believe that if a child were to be returned every day to Ukraine, it would take around 55 years for all these children to be returned.

While there was a very large turnout at the summit, and participants were present from all parts of the world, it is truthful to say there were notable absences from parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East in particular, and not all attending opted to join the communiqué. It is therefore clear that we need to continue to reach out to the global south, in particular, to increase understanding of what is at stake. If Russia’s invasion is allowed to stand, none of us can rely on the basic commitment to territorial integrity and sovereignty promised in the UN Charter.

The Taoiseach is absolutely right to condemn the barbaric character of Russia's actions in Ukraine. The almost certain missile attack against a children's hospital is an absolute outrage. The kidnapping of children and the illegal and unjustifiable invasion are barbaric. There is no question about it. Really, Putin is sort of reminiscent of Stalin in his barbarism. There is no doubt, therefore, that we should all join together in condemning it. What I also find sort of incredible is the Orwellian doublethink of many of the people who attend peace conferences such as this one and say all these justifiable things about Putin's horrors in Ukraine, while at the same time, many of those same leaders are providing weapons, arms and political support to the State of Israel as it does things that are every bit, if not more, horrific to the people of Gaza.

As we speak, Israel is issuing evacuation orders in Gaza city and other places. Tens of thousands of people are fleeing in terror as the Israelis continue their barbaric assault. The medical journal, The Lancet, is now estimating that the real death toll, when all the bodies buried under the rubble are uncovered and we look at the indirect deaths resulting from the hospital and civilian infrastructure being destroyed and the famine conditions existing, is that 186,000 Palestinians may have been killed by Israel's genocidal slaughter. Yet many of the people at that peace conference continue to provide weapons to the state that is doing this. It is absolutely shocking.

"Double standards" is too weak a term for it; it is Orwellian. It means that the people who talk about territorial integrity or the UN Charter are just hypocrites. They do not give a damn about the UN Charter, children or hospitals being hit. If they did, they would be as horrified at what is being done by Israel as we speak, and as has been done for nine months, against the hospitals, the schools and the water infrastructure and at the tens of people being slaughtered. When is this hypocrisy going to be called out? To be honest, the strength of language is not enough. I admit the Taoiseach's Government is better than many, but we are not taking the sort of action necessary in terms of imposing sanctions and calling out the shocking and obscene double standards of the western governments arming the Israeli genocide.

First, I express my horror and outrage at the attack on civilian infrastructure and specifically the attack on the children's hospital in Kyiv by the Russian military. It is absolutely horrendous to see the pictures from that hospital. It certainly seems to be a clear war crime by the Putin regime. In relation to the summit, this was heralded as a peace summit. Obviously, though, it is not a summit that ended in peace and it was never going to be a summit that was going to end in peace. I will quote from Wolfgang Münchau, who is neither a radical leftist nor a Putinist of any sort. He wrote an article in The New Statesman in which he said very bluntly:

The ... “Peace Summit” on Ukraine failed – deservedly so. Of the 102 state representatives who gathered in Bürgenstock on 15-16 June, 22 refused to sign the final declaration. It was clearly not a peace summit since Russia was absent. But it was also not a solidarity summit. Some of the world’s largest countries, like India and Brazil, were amongst those who refused to be co-opted into the Western position. This is not how peace is done.

That is very true. In reality, this was a summit of the West and some of its allies. There were notable absences in terms of those countries not present. China, for example, chose not to attend. Equally, major countries from the global south attended but chose not to sign. There were also notable inclusions. Did the Irish State have anything to say about the fact that Israel was present and signed this declaration condemning all of Russia's war crimes while literally at the same time committing exactly the same, if not worse, war crimes? Was there no pointing out of the extreme hypocrisy of this? This creates problems for the countries of the global south in respect of why there are these double standards. Some of them oppose western imperialism. Some of them may be in the camp of Russia, but some of them may be looking to have a consistent position of opposing Russian war crimes as well opposing Israeli war crimes and western imperialism.

I have a concrete question. Has Ireland taken or is the Government considering taking any initiatives in this regard? We are, relatively speaking, in the global north but we are not a traditional military power, a major imperial country and so on. I refer to working with the likes of Brazil, where Lula has come out in favour of a peace plan to try to have a real peace process in terms of Ukraine.

I welcome what the Taoiseach said about a cross-Border enterprise hub to deal with certain issues. I probably failed to say that there would need to be engagement with the British Government and some sort of bilateral agreement. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves might be more open than the people who sat there previously. The issue of the underfunding of the Executive needs to be dealt with.

Turning back to the peace conference, it has been said by many of my colleagues that the double standards are an issue. They are an issue in relation to the global south. We must all call out the attacks on the hospital and the continuation of old-style Russian imperialism. I get that it is very difficult to have a peace deal until we have two parties willing to deal. We must do what can be done. At the same time, however, we must also play our part. This brings us back to trying to find those who will work alongside us to make moves around the EU-Israel association agreement and the humanitarian conditions. We must also look at divestment, including in respect of our legislation concerning those involved in illegal settlements, etc.

First, I sincerely welcome that everybody in this House who has spoken clearly condemns the horrific actions of Putin. I accept that, I acknowledge it and it is important that we say it, particularly after the horror of the children's hospital. I do want to acknowledge that.

To be clear, I do not expect the Deputy to follow what I say at these summits, but I did very clearly say in my contribution on behalf of Ireland that I felt we could not sit at a peace summit at which Israel was present and ignore the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding in the Middle East. I called it out and I think Norway also called it out, but many others did not. I found it ironic that Israel was present at the peace summit and I did call it out. There is a real challenge here. I have said at the European Council - others have said it too, but not that many - that we need a consistency of approach. This country often gets defined as pro-Palestinian or pro-something else. We can all have different perspectives but, fundamentally, our foreign policy is grounded in being pro-international law and pro-human rights, and a child is a child is a child. Whether it is a child who is brutally murdered in the Middle East, in Gaza or a child in a hospital in Ukraine, this country should always call that out.

The Deputy is right that some countries may not have been at the peace summit for different reasons, including alliances with Russia. Let us park that. There are other countries in other parts of the world outside “the West”, if you want to call it that, that do challenge us on the inconsistent approach to different conflicts. There cannot be a hierarchy when it comes to international law or human rights. I agree that the inconsistent approach that is being adopted by some countries and the European Union as a whole to the conflict and the war in the Middle East versus the brutal, illegal invasion of Ukraine is possibly hampering a consistent global approach being taken. I have no difficulty in saying that because I believe it to be true.

In relation to the concrete actions we are taking, in my conversations with President Zelenskyy, of which I have had a few at this stage, he has asked that we continue to reach out to countries where Ireland has a traditional track record of support via development aid and others to ask those countries to come to the table. I heard the commentary Deputy Paul Murphy read out and I have heard other commentary to the same degree. You can either adopt a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty approach to the peace summit in Switzerland. I believe there is value in it in the sense that it was the largest gathering of countries, leaders and international organisations since the conflict and Putin's illegal invasion began. In that sense, that in and of itself it had value. A lot of work was done in the breakout sessions, including, as I referenced in my opening statement, work on humanitarian aid, abducted children, food supply and food security that helps or, at least, that we must work on in the here and now.

By the way, I believe there was a broad consensus in relation to principles for peace that need to respect the UN Charter, territorial integrity and sovereignty, and that is important. I believe, however, that the next peace summit, and I hope there will be another one, must seek to bring more people to the table. That is a role that Ireland will continue to endeavour to play. Of course, from the point of view of concrete initiatives, we continue to assist Ukraine, not just from a humanitarian perspective or by welcoming people from Ukraine who are here seeking refuge, but also by demining and through the work of the ESB, which has helped. One of the big concerns that Ukraine has right now is energy and keeping the lights on, because Putin is particularly targeting energy supply. We are also trying to assist with issues of cybersecurity.