If the Deputy allows me to give the regulations around this, then I will answer the direct question. The Air Navigation (Carriage of Munitions of War, Weapons and Dangerous Goods) Order 1973 prohibits the carriage of munitions of war through Irish airspace or through Irish airports on civilian aircraft unless an exemption has been granted by the Minister for Transport. Statistics on such exemptions are published on the Department of Transport’s website. The process in place around the granting of such permission by…

It is important that we deal with facts here rather than what people believe. In order for a civilian aircraft that is carrying US military personnel to travel through Shannon Airport, if any of them are carrying arms on their person there needs to be an exemption for that. There is no exemption to carry large munitions or arms for military operations or war. There is not. The only exemptions here are for light arms that are carried on a person. If a senior US official comes through Shannon Airport on a military ai…

The Deputy has asked two very different questions. I have answered the first question: there are no large-scale stocks of weapons travelling through Shannon Airport. There are not. The US sometimes uses Shannon Airport for refuelling to bring personnel from one part of the world to another, and not with their weapons. When the US seeks exemptions, we are talking about light weapons that are for personal security reasons and so on, and not about soldiers with their weaponry heading for parts of the Middle East or wh…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 96, 112, 141, 155 and 160 together. I hope the Acting Chairman will give a me a bit longer to answer this group of questions. I wish to address the five questions and I have quite a detailed answer, which I would like to put on the record, if that is okay.

Thank you. The rights of LGBTQI+ people are essential human rights and Ireland strongly advocates for their promotion and protection throughout the world, including in our relations with Hungary and Poland. On 15 June, the Hungarian National Assembly passed a bill with the official title "Stricter measures against paedophile criminals and on amending legislation related to the protection of children". While ostensibly a child protection law, amendments added to the bill’s original text mean this proposed legislatio…

I am really pleased to hear a united front in the Parliament on this issue but this is not about left and right. It is not about conservative views versus liberal views. It is about human rights. That is what this is about. This is why I agree with Deputy Griffin that UEFA showed cowardice on this issue. It has done great work in terms of trying to stamp out racism in football, as indeed have many other sporting organisations. It is a natural extension of that to also be vocal around the need to protect and respect…

We have a shared view on this issue. It is strong. Over the past decade, in particular, Ireland has in many ways opened up a debate and discussion that has been inclusive, generous and progressive. We have an obligation to try to ensure that kind of inclusive discussion also happens in other parts of the world and, if necessary, other parts of the European Union so that people's concerns, anxieties and perspectives can change and they can get the reassurance they need to change their approach on this issue. We need…

I have a written reply but it is not much good to the Deputy, so I will talk off the cuff if that is okay. We have not had any representation on this issue, apart from Deputy Crowe. I am happy to be helpful on this issue, if we can, through our embassy in Cairo. It is a good and active embassy. However, no company, stakeholder or interested party has reached out to us with a concern. A legal case is under way relating to cargo that was on the ship, the commercial interests around that and so on. We cannot interfere…

If there is a role for the embassy and diplomatic channels to be used, we will use them. I have a very good relationship with my Egyptian counterpart. Normally, we speak about Israel and Palestine and trying to take action on ceasefires, in which Egypt has significant involvement, particularly where they relate to Gaza. The Deputy has raised this issue in the Chamber and sought a conversation with our embassy, but perhaps if he comes to my office, we will try to be as helpful as appropriate on the issues he has out…

I do not want to speculate on the legal case or on whether decoupling is possible. There is a large amount of money involved and this is a high-profile legal case on the back of major disruptions that happened as a consequence of a ship going aground and blocking the Suez Canal for a sustained period. There is an offer to work with the Deputy on this issue as appropriate, but I do not want to start making commitments that I cannot deliver on until we examine the detail. We can certainly raise the matter in the appr…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 98 and 142 together. I attended the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, which took place in Luxembourg on Monday, 21 June. The Council held a discussion on the situation in Belarus and we met the opposition leader, Ms Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. As I said in response to an earlier question on Belarus, we decided to impose restrictive measures on 78 Belarusian individuals and eight entities. These measures will sanction those behind the brutal repression we have been witnessing in …

It is being enforced and all EU states are, as far as I am aware, complying with it fully. There is a challenge, though, which I raised, as did a number of others. While it is the appropriate action and the EU and EU leaders needed to respond robustly to an outrageous act of aviation piracy, which is how it has been described, cutting off Belarusian airlines and not allowing them into EU airspace or EU airlines into Belarusian airspace has created a consequence of isolation for Belarus, in that any international tr…

It is too early to make that assessment because we only made the decision at the start of this week. It will take time for those decisions to take effect. The debate within the EU around sanctions is always a delicate one because if sanctions are applied in the wrong way they can be counterproductive. In the case of Belarus, the EU is very united on the need to target its sanctions at people who are responsible for anti-democratic practices and repression, and those who benefit from the Lukashenko regime remaining …

We have already debated these issues but this is also a very useful question to respond to. Israel’s new coalition Government took office on 13 June. I have written to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapid, and I look forward to having a chance to speak with him in due course on a range of issues. The EU High Representative has spoken to Mr. Lapid. I participated in a discussion on the Middle East at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday. The relationship between Israel and the EU is important and we hope…

To respond to the accusation that as we talk people are dying on the streets of Gaza, that is not fully accurate. I am glad to say we have a ceasefire. Obviously, there was real concern about air strikes in recent days in Gaza. Thank goodness, nobody was fatally injured in those air strikes. There is no country in the EU more vocal on this issue than Ireland and no foreign minister more vocal on it than me. I again used the opportunity, under the current affairs section of the discussions at the Foreign Affairs Cou…

I agree with virtually everything the Deputy has just said. We need a relationship with Israel but we have also got to call out breaches of international law. I can be accused of some things in this House, but I am not sure it is fair to accuse me of not speaking directly and in a strident manner about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I have been very direct in calling out breaches of international law and the disproportionate use of force and my concern that not enough has happened to protect civilians and childre…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: affirms Ireland's solidarity with the Belarusian people in their peaceful defence of democratic principles and fundamental human rights; rejects the democratic legitimacy of Alexander Lukashenko following the fraudulent 9th August, 2020, Presidential Election that was neither free nor fair; condemns the violence and repression perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime in the run up to, and in the aftermath of, that election, including its actions to silence the opposition, civil society and in…

I move amendment No. 2: To delete all words from “condemns the targeting of civilian infrastructure” up to and including the words “international human rights law to protect civilians” and substitute the following: “—condemns the violent acts of Hamas and other militant groups, including the firing of rockets and incendiary devices from Gaza into Israel, the disproportionate and indefensible response of Israel bombing civilians and essential infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, the loss of life in both Israel and Pale…

I am sharing time with Deputy Carroll MacNeill. We are here this afternoon to address the current cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. It is the latest in a long, brutal and inhumane conflict that has taken an unspeakable human toll. This week, I have spoken about the situation in the Seanad, at the UN Security Council and in a meeting of EU foreign ministers. I repeat here my calls for an immediate cessation of violence. Indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza must stop. Israeli air strikes must st…

I begin by joining with the Taoiseach and all of my colleagues in conveying our condolences to the Ballymurphy families for the terrible events that took their loved ones from them and in extending our sympathy and solidarity for the nearly 50 years that they have had to spend fighting to bring truth to those events. That is a lifetime of struggle. I was honoured to meet the families on several occasions in recent years as the Government worked with them to support their long campaign. To hear the coroner’s verdict…