Simon Harris

I thank the Deputy. Ireland’s support for the Government and people of Ukraine is steadfast. This remains a key focus of my Department’s engagements with Ukrainian interlocutors at political level; with the Ukrainian Embassy in Dublin through the Irish Embassy in Kyiv; and at EU and international level, where I continue to raise Ukraine as a matter of priority. The Ukrainian foreign minister regu…

I very much welcome what the Deputy says because it reminds us of the fact there is only one aggressor here. It is Russia. It is Putin. There is a President of Ukraine and a President of Russia. The President, Government and people of Ukraine are willing and ready to accept an unconditional ceasefire for a period of time to provide space for proper talks and negotiations on a lasting, just, enduri…

The Deputy is right. We cannot walk away from supporting and standing by Ukraine. We all want peace. We all want to see the killing and the war end. We want to see the prisoners released. We saw some degree of a prisoner exchange recently. However, we do not want a peace that rewards aggression or that rips up the UN Charter. We do not want a "peace" that does not involve Ukraine. Therefore, the m…

Exactly. I would add that I spoke very much in favour of that motion yesterday. I said I not only was not opposing it but also wanted to see it taken forward. I believed it a constructive addition to the discussion. Government and Opposition need to work more together on the common values we share and our desire to see an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza, perpetrated by the Israeli Governm…

That is absolutely the case. I do not mean to be pedantic, but as I said yesterday, there has in the past been an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on this issue. If it is reconvened and becomes the vehicle by which we can bring forward the resolution discussed yesterday in the House or another mechanism is required, we are all open to working on this and the outcome is the same…

I thank the Deputy. He is correct that Ireland will be pleased to play a central role at that UN conference. We have been invited by France and Saudi Arabia to co-chair one of the working groups. With Türkiye, we will be co-chairing one of the eight working groups that form part of the conference. Final details of the work programmes for each working group are to be established in the coming days.…

I agree with the Deputy. Following a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council last Tuesday, the EU High Representative announced that the EU would finally conduct a review of Article 2 of the EU-Israel association agreement. This is an important decision that reflects the grave concerns held by member states regarding the situation in Gaza. We went from two countries - Ireland and Spain - calling fo…

The Deputy is right. It is offensive, to put it mildly, that it has taken this long to get to the point of reviewing the association agreement. It is as clear as day that the human rights clauses of the association agreement are being breached. I understand there needs to be a review to establish that, and I get that, but this is something that we called for in February 2024. I welcome the fact t…

Every day, the Government looks at what more we can do and is happy to always constructively look at that with the Opposition. I, too, do not want to revisit that debate other than to say the Minister for Finance outlined the Government's position based on legal realities and on the legislation not achieving what we believed Sinn Féin thought the legislation would achieve. However, there is a hell…

I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising this issue. I share her view and her awareness in terms of the anxiety and concern that there is from farmers, climate activists and many people about this Mercosur free trade agreement. I believe we all share the view that free, fair and open trade is something that we in this country support. It is something that we have done well from economically and beyond …

Our opposition to the agreement is as strong as France's and, potentially, Poland's will be. Let me reflect on whether and when we will formally join that group and revert to the Deputy, but I have been clear in my conversations with the French Government about our opposition. I do not see any sign of the French Government's position changing on that. Technically, the agreement is undergoing what…

We are continuing to engage. I had a meeting with my Italian counterpart, Antonio Tajani, a while ago on this. I intend to seek to speak to him again on it because I read some commentary in a report I got back from Italy recently about some broader discussion in Italy on it. I have not heard directly from the minister on it, so I do not wish to misrepresent Italy's position. In fairness to the Eu…

Ireland’s consistent position remains that we need substantive, calm, measured and comprehensive dialogue with the United States. I am pleased to say this is also the position of the European Union, which has shared a constructive proposal for scoping out a negotiation between the two sides. At the same time, we understand the need for the EU to undertake further internal preparations in case nego…

I think the Deputy is right and I also hope that is what it is. I learned a long time ago not to respond to every Truth Social post or every tweet. We need to be calm and substantive in our engagement here. I welcome that President von der Leyen and President Trump spoke on the phone the other evening. That provided more of a window of space for engagement. I welcome that engagement. I also note …

First, on what the countertariff measures might look like, it is open to consultation until 10 June. The Government will make its views known. It is also open to every sector and person to make a submission, and we are encouraging people to do that. What we saw the last time we engaged on this was that we actually made some progress in removing some items from the list of retaliatory measures that…

I thank Deputy McCarthy for the question. The passport service is experiencing a high level of demand for passports as our citizens prepare for upcoming summer travel plans. Thanks to operational and staffing plans implemented by my Department, I am pleased to say that the passport service is successfully responding to the current level of demand, and we have issued over 440,000 passports and pass…

I will double-check that I am correct but my understanding is that of the 858 staff, approximately 133 are temporary clerical officers. I will double-check the split between temporary and permanent staff. I thought the Deputy might have a particular interest in Cork so I checked and found that 117 staff are working in the Passport Office in Cork. It is not possible to have any more staff in Cork …

I thank Deputy McCarthy. I will check with the Passport Office if it plans to look further at that. There is always a passport reform process under way. We have seen a number of reforms. We have come a very long way from the Covid backlog and all the challenges then to now having a system that is very efficient. It is a good example of public service reform and also of digitisation. I meet so many…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 169, 170, 179, 185, 191 and 195 together. I agree with the Deputy that the Bill takes on an even greater level of concern after the horrific announcement today of Israel's plans to develop further illegal settlements. The situation in the West Bank is deeply concerning. It is clearly unacceptable. I want to be clear that Ireland and the EU are strongly opposed to …

I take the point Deputy Connolly makes around the date of the original Bill being 2018. That is, of course, a statement of fact. Respectfully, I make the point back that, for better or worse, trade is an EU competency, and I am happy to be in the European Union. It has been the position of successive Governments for quite a period of time that, therefore, any issues in that Bill were a matter to b…

As the Deputy can imagine, I will be engaging with the Attorney General as we seek to advance this general scheme. In response to Deputy Stanley's request, that was the point I was making. In the previous Government, I had conversations about whether it was possible to move forward with an occupied territories Bill. I accept that the line Deputy Murphy is quoting regarding political choice is ac…

Deputy Murphy is right. That was an option. It could be amended line by line or section by section. Our view was that bringing forward a new Bill was a better way of doing it. I am open to persuasion on the issue of services. It is not a persuasion that needs to be done from a policy point. Rather, I am open to persuasion as to whether it would work in this Bill. I am not afraid of infringement p…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 172 and 173 together. I thank Deputy Lahart. I am committed, as is the rest of the Government, to working with our European and Ukrainian counterparts to maintain our solidarity with Ukraine and to ensure Ukraine gets the support it needs to defend itself against brutal Russian aggression. This remains a key focus of my engagements, both bilaterally and at the Eur…

To start with the Deputy's last point, that is a huge concern because, in fairness to President Trump, he has been very clear that he wants the war to end. He wants peace and the President of the European Commission, President von der Leyen, has welcomed some of the interventions President Trump has made in that regard. There has been significant dialogue between a number of senior European leader…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 174 and 176 together. I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. His party is working him hard today. I assure him that my officials and I remain in ongoing and close contact with a number of like-minded countries, including France, which the Deputy referenced in the question, on our opposition to the current EU-Mercosur trade deal. Indeed, as I stated in response to an earlier que…