Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I am now bamboozled by the Deputy's position. I am trying to be constructive and engage but he wants to use political rhetoric. That is fine. On one hand, he is saying to go ahead and impose national sanctions on a company that he is accusing of funding the Russian war machine and fuelling in terms of Ukraine. On the other hand, he saying to sit down and have a chat with them. Let us take this step by step. The first step is to establish the facts and provide those facts to the European Commission. The second step is to see what the European Commission wishes to do because it is the European Commission that proposes sanctions. Ireland has never blocked. In fact, we enthusiastically support all sanctions proposals that come to the Commission and we currently trying to get the 21st sanctions package over the line.
Absolutely, if there are any implications, and we should not prejudge this, we should work at European and national levels to make sure we can support workers and make sure the supply chain of alumina, a significant amount of which is being supplied to the European market from the mid-west, can continue as well. There is a complexity to all of this. This is not straightforward. We cannot just read a newspaper headline, and say, "That is grand. Slap a sanction on it". That is now how European Union membership works. We have been asked by the Commission - and the Ukrainian Government has welcomed what we are doing - to provide the most up-to-date information. I expect that process to conclude very shortly and I am absolutely crystal clear, as is all of the Government, there can be no cherry picking - and there will not be - when it comes to Ireland supporting Ukraine and taking action against Russia.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16