I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue which offers the opportunity to discuss important developments in Northern Ireland. The Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland is an integral part of an international agreement, the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, which was negotiated, agreed and ratified by the British Government and the EU. The protocol was jointly designed by the UK and the EU to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions and to protect the gains of the peace process. Yesterday's…

The message I have from the British Government today is that it is taking legal advice about the options available. I understand that the senior officials who are maintaining checks at ports in Northern Ireland today are also getting legal advice about their obligations. Ireland's position on the implementation of the protocol has been consistent. We will continue to work with Vice President Maroš Šefčovič and his team and also with Liz Truss and her team to try to find solutions to outstanding issues through compr…

I thank Members for their engagement on this important topic and for the opportunity to provide an update on the work of the Passport Office. I know this is an issue that many public representatives have spoken about and it is a service they engage with regularly. The passport service is facing its busiest year to date with an estimated 1.7 million passport applications expected this year. This is due to pent-up demand following Covid-19 public health restrictions over the past two years. I will put that figure of …

I strongly urge anyone who is considering travelling overseas this year, especially families with young children, to check the validity of their passports before booking travel and to apply for their passports online in plenty of time. I cannot emphasise that point enough. If an application is online, we can do all sorts of things with the system when there is an urgent need to get that passport through the process quickly. If it is a paper application, it is a much more complicated process and it stalls the whole …

Cork and Dublin are open.

She will have to leave via the back door.

I will, if the House will permit me. If a political decision is taken by a Minister in Northern Ireland to stop all checks in ports on goods coming across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland, that is effectively a breach of international law. I would remind everybody the protocol is part of an international agreement. It was agreed and ratified by the UK and the EU and its implementation is not only part of an international treaty but is also part of international law. To deliberately frustrate obligations under that…

This is an important debate. The legacy of conflict on this island and how we address this chapter of our history is vital for the shared future that we want, a shared future committed to on all sides as part of the Good Friday Agreement. We cannot build an inclusive future on cracked foundations. That is why, as difficult as it is, we must have a comprehensive approach to the violence of the past. This must deliver as much as is possible for victims and survivors from both communities in both jurisdictions, and ac…

This has been quite a substantive debate and I thank the Taoiseach and all of the Deputies, from all sides of the House, who contributed to it. Over the years, many of our days in this Chamber have been spent putting on the record the facts and the outstanding questions around terrible events in the history of the conflict and the hardship that followed for so many families. It is important that those events are acknowledged as they should be. The years have left a map of heartbreak in our collective memory. Mentio…

This issue has been raised repeatedly in the House since it emerged and I have repeatedly expressed my concern about the designation of six Palestinian NGOs, including organisations in receipt of support from Irish Aid and the EU, as terrorist entities. Ireland is fully committed to funding civil society organisations and human rights defenders in Palestine as a key part of our support for the Palestinian people. We are working closely with our EU partners on the issue and EU officials have engaged with Israeli aut…

I have no reason to believe that funding to those civil society organisations should be cut or removed. My Department and myself are satisfied that the relationship we have with both Al-Haq and Addameer gives us reassurance that these organisations are doing good work and should be supported in doing so. My understanding from our engagement is that the Commission's consideration of the information provided by the Israeli authorities is ongoing. I have not seen that information, but we will continue to talk to the C…

My officials have met with Commission officials in Brussels with regard to the designations and the EU decision to suspend funding. Since this debate began on the back of the announcement that was made by Israeli authorities, of course, we have been open to looking at any evidence that may be provided. However, as of yet, I have seen no evidence to suggest that the organisations we fund or, indeed, the others that have been named should be designated as terrorist organisations. That is my view. Of course, we have t…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, driven by seven years of conflict, economic collapse and the breakdown of public institutions and services that has left more than 24 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Ireland and the EU fully support the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Mr. Hans Grundberg, whom I have met and spoken to, to bring about a political resolution to the conflict in Yemen. EU member states are in agreement that there is n…

I do not believe that a resolution to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen will be solved by sanctions per se . I think it will be solved by political engagement across the region and at UN level. Regarding Ireland's position on arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Ireland does not supply military equipment to any of the parties to the conflict in Yemen. Arms exports are a national competence in the EU but all EU member states are subject to the common position on arms exports. Each arms export licence must be ass…

I am in no doubt as to the horrors of war in Yemen and the humanitarian consequences of ongoing conflict there. When I visited Tehran last year, primarily focused on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, discussions, I also had a discussion on Yemen and the influence that Iran has on the Houthis in that conflict and certainly made clear our desire for Iran to use its influence on Houthis in the context of that conflict. I also visited Saudi Arabia and had a long discussion regarding its involvement in the …

I thank the Deputy. I am glad to have an opportunity to update the House on this issue. Ireland's National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020 was launched towards the end of 2017. Ireland was the 19th country in the world to publish such a plan in response to the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the Human Rights Council in 2011. The implementation of this whole-of-government plan was overseen by an implementation group comprising representatives of Govern…

As the Deputy will be aware, the European Commission is developing a legislative initiative on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. The detail of this sustainable corporate governance proposal is expected in the near future. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is following this file closely in both Brussels and Dublin and, while my Department has no direct role in the transposition of any directive of this nature, we stand ready to assist colleagues in that Department in any way we…

As I said earlier, the EU holds the competences for many of the issues covered by the proposed legally binding instrument, which is being developed in an open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and human rights. We have made clear in Brussels and Geneva that Ireland favours constructive engagement in the treaty negotiations. During the most recent negotiation session in Geneva, the EU offered to assist the chairperson and rapporteur of the working group to explore ideas for a consen…

I thank the Deputy for the question. It concerns a topic that should get much more focus than it does. Many questions focus on problems with the implementation of the protocol, and there are some, but of course there is also great benefit for Northern Ireland in getting uninterrupted access into both the rest of the UK internal market and the huge EU Single Market. That is an extraordinary economic advantage for Northern Ireland, the benefits of which we are starting to see. The protocol on Ireland and Northern Ire…

It is important to put on the Dáil record examples of what is happening. I will give a number of examples. Last year, Invest Northern Ireland reported that it was dealing with 50 firms interested in setting up in Northern Ireland, and Manufacturing Northern Ireland has noted a similar uptake in investment interest. For example, the Almac group, the global pharmaceutical organisation headquartered in Craigavon, announced the creation of 1,000 new jobs in Northern Ireland. Almac has consistently highlighted its uniqu…