Neale Richmond

We have plenty of TDs.

I am grateful for the opportunity to close this debate. I thank Deputies for their contributions and consideration of the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill. I look forward to the opportunity to respond in this period to some of the issues raised. Crucially, I remind Deputies of the ultimate reason the Government is introducing this legislation, that is, to put Ireland, as a country that so greatly bene…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Deputies Duncan Smith and Heneghan have asked similar questions and we will have a longer debate on it this afternoon. The conflict in Sudan has resulted in the world’s most severe humanitarian and protection crisis, with more than 150,000 deaths, over 2 million forcibly displaced and more than 21 million people facing crisis levels of hunger. Following…

On discussions, as I mentioned, the Government has raised this at EU and UN levels, where appropriate. I have also personally discussed it at a political level with senior officials and ministers from the UAE. That happened at a meeting in Dublin a number of months ago, meetings held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and at High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, and I will be meeting the UAE ambassador …

Let there be no underestimation. This is the worst humanitarian crisis happening in the world at the moment and it has been for a considerable time. It is the largest displacement of people, and Ireland will not be found wanting. As I mentioned, so far this year, we have allocated €4.3 million in humanitarian assistance. That included an additional €3 million announced by me and the Tánaiste in S…

I thank the Deputy for his timely question. Ireland's diplomatic priorities are set out in the Department of Foreign Affair and Trade's statement of strategy for 2025 to 2028, which includes active diplomatic engagement in promoting peace, security and the protection of human rights abroad. We pursue these objectives against the backdrop of a changing geopolitical landscape and a wide range of cha…

There are a couple of elements to that. The negotiations under way in Geneva between the US and Ukraine are welcome, but Ireland is not a direct party to them. One issue that came up at the Foreign Affairs Council, which I attended virtually yesterday, was the need for there to be an EU track to the negotiations. While there are three European countries around the negotiations, we want to make sur…

Yes, absolutely. When there is a ceasefire and a peace agreement in Ukraine, Ireland is fully prepared to play a real part in that. Just two weeks ago, I was in Colombia, one of 13 Irish Aid countries, and our programme work there is solely in relation to peace. The experience of Ireland has been put into action to uphold the 2016 peace agreement. I visited projects with decommissioned FARC gueril…

I am very grateful to the iar-Cheann Comhairle for raising this important issue. Afghanistan was not discussed at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council which the Minister, Deputy McEntee, attended on 20 November. However, the Minister and I believe that the current dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan clearly warrants a political level discussion within the Foreign Affa…

I fundamentally agree with the Deputy. Although I do not know if the words "moderate" and "Taliban" can ever be used in the same sentence, I understand the point he is trying to make. I absolutely agree that the attention needs to be continued. That is one of the main reasons that there is a specific reference in the programme for Government to protecting women and girls in Afghanistan. We believe…

One of the things that was often lost in the public mindset around this discussion is that level of compassion - perhaps eclipsed understandably by the sheer scale of compassion needed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that led to over 110,000 people coming to this country. However, before that, after the fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban, that level of community-level, driven compas…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 13, 35 and 97 together. I thank Deputy Smith, as I did Deputy Ó Laoghaire, for raising this matter consistently. It is going to be a very important debate this afternoon. The Government remains deeply concerned by the devastating conflict in Sudan, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian and protection crisis. More than 150,000 people have already been kil…

The history of war in Sudan is awful and bloody. It is also complex with regard to the parties to the war. We can talk about the RSF and the Government but we can also talk about various tribal militias who are agnostic with regard to who they side with in pursuit of their bloody aims. This conflict is of a scale that is perhaps unfathomable to this House, to be honest. It is as bad as anything t…

I am very grateful to the Deputy for raising the very large Sudanese population that lives here in Ireland. When we see things in the abstract and we look at news reports and everything else, we forget that these are people's family members and friends. These are people living in our constituencies who are worried about their family and friends and not knowing what the future holds. In regard to …

I will try my best with ten minutes but I might ask for a little bit of latitude from the House, given that we are ahead of schedule. A number of pertinent issues were raised by Deputies and by the Acting Chair that I will try to address. I want to address a couple of points raised by Deputies who are still in the Chamber as I think they merit the response. A lot of what Deputy Boyd Barrett raised…

It is clear the strength of opinion held across the House on the situation in Gaza and, indeed, in the West Bank and on the importance attached to this draft legislation. The programme for Government commitments to prohibiting the imports of goods from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The general scheme before the House delivers on this commitment. Trade and services are …

I join both the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, in commending the people of Ukraine on their brave defence of their homeland and, equally, to utterly condemn Russia for its brutal and illegal war. Let there be no equivocation: there is one single aggressor and one sole reason for this brutal conflict, which is the madness of the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin that is driving th…

It is from the 1950s.

It came in during the 1950s.

It came from legislation from 1954.

All right.

I can hear you.

I thank the Deputies from all sides of the House and Ministers for their contributions today. I will reply to some of the points in order to provide clarification but from the get-go, I welcome the overwhelming, if not total sense of solidarity between this House and the people of Ukraine, particularly from opposition Members who recognise this is an utterly illegal and brutal war by the Russian F…

I am just providing a clarification; I am not looking to get into a debate on it. We send members of the Defence Forces to train in de-mining activities. That is not training people for war; it is removing land mines from potentially targeting civilians. I am not taking issue with the other points the Deputy raised, but that specific one is particularly important.

Respectfully, we are not taking sides as a military neutral.