Post European Council Meeting: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-14
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

If we rewind back nine or ten months, an awful lot of people in Ireland, particularly those employed in multinational companies, were very concerned about the threat of tariffs. We have entered into a bit of a frozen situation in that regard. Some headway was made but I would not say the deal that was arrived at was necessarily perfect in every manner or means. The situation as is has already had an impact on certain agrifood sectors, particularly the whiskey industry. The Minister of State might give an update on whether there was any discussion at the Council meeting on whether there is likely to be any shift in the tariffs picture. We cannot take our eye off the ball on that and we also need to look at diversification domestically.
During my contribution at the outset I referenced the situation in Sudan. I am not putting all this on the Irish Government by any manner or means but at European level it is not getting the attention it deserves. I ask the Minister of State to comment on that. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the past couple of years and there are millions of people displaced. It is going on and shows no sign of abating. I ask the Minister of State and the Irish Government to use whatever influence they can at the next Council meeting to try to push it further up the agenda.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-14