Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Exactly, but we can always learn. I am always open to learning. Every day is a new day.
On the electricity charge, the issue there was the preponderance of renewables in Spain and on the Iberian Peninsula which they did during the Covid crisis because they felt gas was completely distorting their price, given the fact that they were overwhelmingly renewable. They got a carve-out from gas being the determinant price-maker in their situation. They have had challenges with renewables in terms of the grid overall. The Deputy will recall the major outage recently, or some time back, for which there was never a full explanation, but it is important to bear it in mind. We will continue to work with Spain on the Middle East in particular, particularly now in Lebanon when it looks like UNIFIL will expire and that will create serious issues for south Lebanon. We will not be in a position to replenish that unless there are changes to the triple lock. We will not be in a position to send any troops, any CSDP mission from the European Union, for example, which could be used to support the Lebanese armed forces in terms of training and so on, or to keep a monitoring role in south Lebanon. There are discussions under way by other member states in respect of that at the moment.
Regarding Deputy Brendan Smith's question, absolutely there are issues. In our discussions we are the honest broker now, but in all those meetings I have had I would say there is a preponderance of view wanting retention and strengthening of CAP, and also cohesion. A lot of the countries on the eastern flank in particular are strong on cohesion, but they also want defence now in, or protection of the eastern flank because they feel their situation is existential in respect of Russia. In the Baltics, in particular, and Poland and also obviously some of the Nordics, they genuinely believe Russia is coming for them next. The problem will be to try to get agreement on a budget. It is like endeavouring to reconcile the irreconcilable. Even though we are net contributors we are not looking for a cut in the overall budget because we believe Europe has to be ambitious in terms of making sure we can grow our economy, making sure we can avail of the digital transformation of AI and making sure we can do the decarbonisation of European economy and society. That will cost. That will need investment. Some countries want to cut the overall budget. Some want to increase. Some want to reduce the competitiveness funds and try to get more for CAP and cohesion. A lot of people support CAP and cohesion. The challenge at the moment is there is more demand for a limited budget. Our view is that, overall, the European Union budget is about 1% of European GDP. It is not a huge sum in the overall context of output within the European Union. Europe has a lot of ambitions and different member states have a lot of ambitions, but you have to have a budget to realise those ambitions. A lot of people have spoken favourably about the Common Agricultural Policy being a key part of our security architecture in terms of food security for Europe. That came across strongly from quite a number of member states. We have to factor in food security. It was very interesting in the early stages of the Ukraine war, with the whole issue about grain and the Black Sea grain initiative, there was a real fear that would have repercussions across Africa - sub-Saharan Africa in particular - and could cause famine in those locations.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15