2026-02-05

66. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade her assessment of the current situation in Belarus; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8282/26]

87. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade her assessment of the current situation in Belarus; if she has had any engagement with the Belarus government-in-exile; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8280/26]

90. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the engagement Ireland has had with Belarus; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8284/26]

Question No. 66 in the name of Deputy Séamus McGrath will be asked by Deputy Ó Fearghaíl.

What is the Minister of State's assessment of the situation in Belarus, where the dictator Lukashenko is an ally and, indeed, puppet of the Putin regime? How does the Minister of State feel about the situation there at present?

I propose to take Questions Nos. 66, 87 and 90 together. It might not be wise for me to tell Deputy Ó Fearghaíl how I feel about the situation in Belarus. Personal emotions might be slightly stronger than the Government position. Belarus continues to live under the shadow of repression. The Government remains extremely concerned at the ongoing erosion of human rights and democracy there and Belarus's ongoing support for and complicity in Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. The Lukashenko regime's repression of human rights and restrictions on political participation and access to independent media are intended to stifle opposition voices and shore up its own authority. Former political prisoners, including Siarhei Tsikhanouski and Ales Bialiatski, have given harrowing accounts of prolonged isolation, psychological pressure and other inhumane treatment suffered in Belarusian prisons. I share their grave concerns about the treatment of the more than 1,150 political prisoners. Shockingly, since May 2021, at least eight political prisoners have died in the regime’s captivity. Deputy Ó Fearghaíl can correct me if I am wrong. I am one of a number of Members from the last Dáil who adopted Belarusian prisoners as godchildren, be they godsons or daughters, based on a campaign. I am delighted that my Belarusian political goddaughter was released from prison. She simply had the crime of having a cigarette in the wrong place at the wrong time and being a young student. I welcome, therefore, efforts by the United States to achieve the release of all political prisoners of the regime in Belarus, which most recently secured the release of 123 political prisoners in December last. While the regime has released political prisoners in recent months, it has exiled many of them, separating them from their families and their homeland. It has also placed many more people in prison for their political views. I reiterate Ireland's long-standing position that all political prisoners must be released and the regime must end its repression against the Belarusian people. Ireland’s response to the situation in Belarus has focused on working bilaterally, and at EU and multilateral levels, to support civil society and the democratic movement in exile and to highlight concerns regarding the Lukashenko regime's violations of human rights. At the same time, we seek to assure the people of Belarus of our continued commitment to their well-being, human rights and legitimate aspiration to a prosperous future in a democratic Belarus. In 2025, my Department provided funding to the Viasna human rights centre founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, and to the international humanitarian fund for the victims of repressions in Belarus to offer support to current and former political prisoners. In recent years, my Department has also provided funding to several other Belarusian civil society projects, including in support of independent media, through grants provided by the European Endowment for Democracy. Our connection with Belarus and its people is reinforced by the compassion and empathy of Irish families who welcomed Belarusian children and young people into their homes and lives, creating permanent bonds in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster almost 40 years ago. Belarusian democratic leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, was one of those young people. I am aware of the close ties of friendship that she holds for Ireland from her childhood stays in our country. I know I am one of a number of people in this House who has met her, as have other Ministers and the Tánaiste, who have also met her husband who was released just last summer from detention in Belarus after spending five years as a political prisoner. There is also ongoing contact between officials in my Department and representatives of the Belarus democratic movement. Ireland continues to support strong co-ordinated EU sanctions and other measures, including action at the OSCE and at the UN, to hold Belarus accountable for its violations of human rights and the rule of law, and its complicity in Russia’s ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine. Ireland has very limited engagement with the Belarusian Government. A Belarusian diplomat is accredited to Ireland to perform consular functions on a non-resident basis and an Irish diplomat is accredited to Belarus on a similar basis. My Department’s current travel advisory for Belarus is simply not to go there.

I compliment the Minister of State on the positive and comprehensive response. I note that on 13 December Belarusian authorities released 123 prisoners following negotiations by the US Administration, which had agreed to lift a sanction on Belarusian potash. The majority of prisoners were sent to Ukraine, and a group of nine sent to Lithuania. Most of those released had been prosecuted and imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. One of those released, Maria Kalesnikava, has since given an interview with the Financial Times in which she called for EU engagement with Belarus on the basis that the lack of it only serves to drive Belarus closer to Russia. Another of the released prisoners, Ales Bialiatski, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has also called on the EU to enter talks with President Lukashenko. I know the Government and Europe would be walking a tightrope on this particular matter but this suggestion has been made by two influential people who are intimately involved in the situation in Belarus and are advocating greater EU engagement. How does the Minister of State respond to that and what are his thoughts on how Ireland and the EU together might proceed?

It is a very serious proposition by the Deputy that needs to be dealt with quite delicately. In December of last year, the EU widened the scope of sanctions against Belarus in response to hybrid activities affecting EU member states. That decision was not taken lightly. While, of course, we welcome the release of political prisoners by Belarus and we are very grateful to the role of the US Administration, we have yet to see evidence of a change of policy in Belarus. In addition to its violations of human rights and the rule of law, and its absolute complicity in Russia's ongoing illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the regime's hybrid activity directed towards the EU continues to increase in scale. We have strongly condemned the large-scale incursions into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. We will continue to work closely with EU partners to examine options for further actions to respond to Belarus's persistent and provocative hybrid activities. That means engaging directly with the regime is extremely difficult. I say that quite frankly. I take with great sincerity the interventions by the released political prisoners. We engage with those former prisoners as an Irish Government at a political and an official level as well as, crucially, at a European level. Some of our own European political affiliations and networks do so as well. We will take their views and their opinions into account but we also have to respond to the actuality and the hybrid incursions were actualities. It is a fact that Belarus is tied at the hip with Russia when it comes to the Russian atrocities in Ukraine. We have to bear all that into account and perhaps tread carefully when it comes to the suggestion or the request to engage directly.

I agree with the Minister of State because it is a tightrope situation. I think most of us in this country would look to what was said by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is a charismatic leader many of us in this House have met. She displayed tremendous courage in taking up the baton after her husband was arrested and has effectively been running a Belarusian Government in exile. She has said the European Union sanctions have a much stronger impact and must remain in place until long-term changes are achieved, including an end to the regime’s involvement in the Ukraine war, the restoration of Belarus's sovereignty and its transformation into a democratic economy, which would appear to be a long way away. She said: Without sanctions and international isolation, the Lukashenka regime would not have begun releasing political prisoners. It is not acting out of humanity – sanctions hurt, isolation hurts, and he understands that he has reached a dead end. That is why he is willing to hand over even his most dangerous opponents in exchange for relief. But lifting or substantially easing sanctions against the regime is dangerous, as it directly strengthens Russia: Belarus’ economy works for Russia’s war machine, Belarus is used as a route to circumvent sanctions, and its enterprises are involved in weapon production. We know where the weapons are going. Does the Minister anticipate that the current level of EU sanctions will be maintained, or, indeed, possibly strengthened?

In direct response to the Deputy's question, I do not envisage a lessening of sanctions any time soon. They were only just increased in December due to the hybrid incursions into Lithuanian airspace. I go back to his original point on how we get guided by the application of sanctions. Sanctions do work. Sanctions forced the Belarusians to release so many prisoners and the sheer prospect of them being weakened by the Americans provided that support. When we talk about Belarus, bearing in mind that we are, most likely, the EU member state located the furthest away geographically, the diplomat who services Belarus for us is accredited to our embassy in Vilnius. I think of the mindset and the interventions of my counterparts, particularly in the Baltic states and in Poland, who, on a daily basis not only face the very real undermining of their civil and political infrastructure by hybrid activities by Belarus but also the sheer impact of the complicity of Belarus in Russia's horrendous full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In many cases, I therefore defer to my Lithuanian colleague, a country which will assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU after Ireland as part of the trio system. We continue to engage with all our contacts both on a civic society basis within and outside Belarus as well as those from the political movement in exile. There is a clear demand to maintain the level of sanctions and be responsive to any more antagonism or protagonism from Belarus. Let us be quite frank: Lukashenko is a dictator who has repressed his people since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has done so willingly, aided and abetted by another dictator in the form of Vladimir Putin. They work in concert to repress their own people and undermine the very stability of the global world order that has kept Europe, until recently, in a level of peace that had not been seen before in history. Any sort of softening when it comes to the regime in Belarus is, by proxy, a softening when it comes to the regime in Russia. I am extremely heartened to see more political prisoners released. I am extremely heartened when they give us the honour to visit Ireland and to engage with us as a member of the EU, bearing in mind the human ties going back to the Chernobyl disaster. We all have to be very wary when it comes to Belarus and make sure that the sanctions are maintained at a level deemed necessary by us within the European Union as an entirety.