Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank all the Members for their comments. With respect to Deputy Boyd Barrett and others, in terms of the human rights issues, we do raise them. China has no issue with foreign leaders raising human rights issues. Deputy Martin Daly emphasised the importance of raising them. However, one gets a robust response. They defend their position on the Jimmy Lai case. It was quite a lengthy conversation with the Premier in respect of that case and in respect of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. They invited us to go down, which they do with all ambassadors in particular. It is my understanding that our ambassador was going to go down. Some ask if one can have freedom to move around and so on. However, our ambassador indicated to me that he would go down in terms of having an assessment of the situation as best one can given that it is, as Deputy Hayes said, a different model in terms of how it works as a society and as a system. We have expressed very strong concerns. I asked that he be released, even on humanitarian grounds, given his age and so on but there was quite a robust response, to be honest, and they defended it strongly. Our embassy is following that very strongly. We have a consulate general in Hong Kong. We also raised the issue of Tibet. We do that at the UN, in our work with the European Union and so on.
In terms of our relationships globally, we have a twin-track approach essentially. That is a values approach, a multilateralism approach and also looking at interests. Ireland cannot resolve every system in the world. It cannot fix every system. We have to engage and we have to have dialogue. A lot of the dialogue was positive.
There are huge issues between Europe and China in respect of manufacturing. Europe feels that there is a lot of excess manufacturing in China that is being dumped in Europe and that the renminbi is devalued and so on. These are ongoing issues. It was interesting that President Xi was anxious that Europe and China would develop a better relationship on trade that would be less susceptible to a ping-pong battle on given sectors, for example, critical rare earth metals and things like that, which could become a choke point for European industry. It is extremely important economically that we have these engagements because there is an interdependence between countries all over the world. It is true that there is greater polarisation happening with the growth of both the US and China. It is very important that the US and China get on for world stability. The world is in a very difficult space right now.
In terms of Lelia Doolan, who Deputy Bacik raised earlier, I admire her and pay tribute to her commitment to her views and her cause. I do caution Deputies Boyd Barrett and Murphy about this mis-characterisation of Shannon Airport. It is not a military base.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15