International Developments: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Barry Ward (FG), Dún Laoghaire This is a very wide topic for debate. It covers a multitude. I have listened to what other speakers have said. First, I will address Ireland's role in the European Union. I have always seen the European Union as a body which was all about the rule of law, respecting the rule of law and ensuring that the rule of law is the means by which we do business. That is hugely important. I have said publicly before that I am actually very disappointed with the manner in which the European Union leadership has approached the rule of law internationally. I can start with Gaza and the attitude of some in the Commission. What happened with Hamas over three years ago was appalling but it does not justify what has happened. However, there has been a very weak response from Europe collectively, although I recognise what our Government has done, how strong a voice our Government has been and how we built a coalition to support that position. The reality is that as a collective Europe has not really delivered in relation to that. One could make similar comments around Venezuela. There has been an incredibly weak response from European leaders in respect of what Donald Trump did in Venezuela. It was an illegal invasion of another country. Yes, Maduro was a tyrant and an autocrat and somebody who did not deserve to be in office but that is true of many people around the world and yet they are not taken out by another country, particularly by a so-called western member of the global community the way America is. Essentially, that went uncriticised by European governments. I hope we now take a strong line in relation to Greenland and that Europe does stand on its own two feet instead of always backing down and appeasing because it does nothing to achieve what we would all like to see achieved. I will mention two specific instances that relate to international affairs. Iran is one. It has gotten a lot of play in the media recently because of the appalling events that have occurred there, the thousands of people who have been killed and the many thousands more who have been arrested by their Government for simply disagreeing with the Government. It may have been precipitated by economic difficulties and a collapse in the value of the rial and all the other inflationary pressures that have been on those people but we know before the current regime in Iran there was actually a functional, free society. It has been gone since the 1970s. I am not saying the Shah was a great fellow either but there has been an oppressive regime there all that time. Hopefully, we see that coming to a head now but the ordinary people of Iran who are raising their voices, having their voices heard and who are being suppressed by their own government need to be recognised and assisted by Ireland in whatever way it can. The other instance I want to raise is Sudan. The war in Sudan has been going on now since April 2023. An estimated 150,000 people have died in the context of that internal conflict which is more than the estimated number of people who have died in Gaza. I know Ireland has given aid. I have heard what the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, has said in terms of that aid to date and the continuation of that aid this year. I welcome that decision. We have a Sudanese Embassy in Dublin. I do not know how many Members of this House have interacted with the ambassador. I do not know if the Minister has had that opportunity. How are we ensuring that the aid we are putting on the ground in Sudan is actually helping the people on the ground, the people who are suffering, the ordinary civilians and particularly those outside Khartoum in the areas in the west of the country who are really at risk in the context of this civil war? How are we helping them? Equally, what are we doing in relation to the United Arab Emirates and what it is doing in assisting this conflict and fostering this conflict to continue? Are we taking steps? Are we raising it with them at diplomatic level in terms of asking them to exit it? Are we talking about this issue generally because it is a huge conflict? As we look at conflicts around the world, it is so often the case that Sub-Saharan Africa does not garner the attention that other conflicts around the world do in the media. They do not get the attention they need from the western world and from the countries which support the rule of law and say we need to be doing more to ensure the human rights of these individuals and to ensure they have a chance to live their lives in a way that all of us in this country get to. They should too. I recognise there is a limited extent to which we can intervene in Sudan or Iran or in any of the other long list of unfair or illegal conflicts around the world but we must do what we can. --- 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/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21