Article 20 of Treaty on European Union Regarding Enhanced Co-operation: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-27 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel I recognise that this loan facility will provide desperately needed support to the people of Ukraine, who are obviously continuing to endure an awful, brutal and illegal war. Ireland should absolutely stand with Ukraine. I support the measures that provide humanitarian and civilian assistance to the Ukrainian people, in line with our long-standing position of neutrality. The invasion of Ukraine has repeatedly been condemned by the UN, which has reaffirmed that this war represents a clear breach of international law and Ukraine's territorial sovereignty. In a world where international law and diplomacy have been completely disregarded and bullying is the tactic of the day, it is the EU's duty to stand up for democracy and human rights. However, the EU cannot pick and choose when to uphold international law. When international law has been repeatedly breached in Gaza and the West Bank, the EU has consistently ignored that question. When Trump forced his will upon Venezuela, the EU issued pandering statements that failed to recognise the audacious breach of international law that took place. It is concerning that, for many leaders within the EU, international law only appears to apply when it suits and when it is politically expedient. How can the principles of international law be taken seriously when the EU takes a piecemeal approach to their application? Picking and choosing when international law applies and to whom is extremely dangerous, especially in a world where Trump is hell-bent on smashing international law to pieces. Within that framework, Ireland's tradition of neutrality puts us in a unique position to call out injustices and push for peace. Our history leaves us with a moral responsibility to take actions against atrocities across the world, including in Ukraine. Ireland has already provided important support to the Ukrainian people, providing non-lethal aid, humanitarian support and demining support. Since the start of the war, Ireland has welcomed more than 100,000 Ukrainians. Ukrainians now make up 1% of the Irish population. The people of Ireland can take pride in the support we have given and continue to give to the people of Ukraine. However, we can and must provide support that aligns with our position of neutrality. That is why I am gladly supporting the Sinn Féin amendment this evening. At the negotiating stage, the Government had the opportunity to ring-fence Irish funds to be exclusively used for non-lethal aid, humanitarian support and reconstruction funding. The Government's failure to do so is an example of the significant mission creep we are seeing around our neutrality more broadly, demonstrated most notably with the legislation to abolish the triple lock being brought to Cabinet today. For peace to prevail, we need to place a greater focus on political dialogue and diplomacy and multilateralism, not pull away from the institutions of multilateralism. Ireland being a neutral actor allows us to hold a unique position globally. Over the past year, Trump has hosted numerous peace talks and negotiations to end the war - absurdly, without any Ukrainian involvement. It is utterly inconceivable that peace talks about Ukraine may happen without the involvement of Ukraine. What utter nonsense. It is only last week that the first trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US actually took place. I find it hard to imagine Putin's sincerity in any of these peace talks, because after the talks, the Russian military launched an airstrike on Ukraine, leading to one person being killed and 35 injured. This attack can only be seen as a complete insult to the peace process that they claim to be engaging in. Trump has strong-armed Ukraine into a disadvantageous mineral deal and openly stated his desires for the natural wealth of nations such as Venezuela and Greenland. It appears that the current US Administration has a greater focus on economic imperialism than peace. Trump's intentions for the future of Ukraine must be questioned. In Gaza, his new so-called Board of Peace has demonstrated his complete disregard for existing international organisations like the UN. His invitation to Putin to be on the Board of Peace is another complete insult to the people of Ukraine. His stipulation fee of $1 billion to join the Board of Peace is more of a billionaire's club interested in land acquisition than any meaningful peacemaking body. The ever-evolving and unpredictable nature of US foreign policy demonstrates why the EU's involvement in future peace talks is essential when it comes to Ukraine. I know attempts have been made by the EU to engage, but it has been very difficult with the US acting as a completely unpredictable interlocutor. As we have heard already, Ireland has a unique role to play, given our experience in peace making at a high, track-one level, in peace building at a grassroots level, and in political dialogue. However, if we are seen to be undermining our neutrality, it puts that position into question. A few questions have to be asked about what exactly is Ireland's financial exposure under the loan facility. Is the liability capped at all? I believe that Ireland should continue to assist Ukraine through humanitarian aid, diplomatic efforts and peace-building efforts. I welcome this loan facility because without it I recognise that Ukraine simply does not have the ability to raise funds. However, I would like to see Irish funds within this facility being ring-fenced for non-lethal humanitarian aid so that Ireland's neutrality is not quietly being eroded, which we have seen systematically with this Government. It is shocking that the Government has allowed this funding model to move ahead without any consideration for our military neutrality. It would have been easy for the Government to say that the Irish contribution should only be spent on specific things. It is not restricted, ring-fenced funding. It is common practice. We do it all the time. The Government's failure to do this demonstrates its total lack of concern for our position on neutrality. I urge the Government to reconsider the amendments around ring-fencing our funding and our contribution to neutrality. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-27