I am covering the questions for Deputy Conway-Walsh. I ask the Minister to provide an update on any engagement with Covalen regarding recent job losses and redundancies announced by the company and to make a statement about it.

Sentiment score: 0.04

I appreciate what the Minister of State has said about IDA but he will be aware that over 700 employees at the Meta contractor were told that they would lose their jobs which will be replaced by AI. They have written to the Minister requesting intervention. I want to know what engagement the Minister has had. What has the Department done to assist the impacted workers? As the Minister of State is probably aware, last week Covalen workers and the CWU gave a briefing in the audiovisual room outlining the situation facing the 700 employees. I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for facilitating that. These workers explained how they were being asked to train AI systems to do their own jobs, effectively digging their own graves. These are mostly content reviewers, watching some of the most horrific content online so that we and our children do not get to see it. While at work, there are no psychological or mental health supports. Some have been hospitalised from the traumatising impact and what have they been given? They have been shown the door with the bare minimum redundancy package. That highlights the attitude of some of these tech companies. The employer is imposing a six-month cooling-off period which would prevent them taking up employment in similar roles. What are they supposed to do? Many of them are non-Irish nationals on critical skills visas with no family support network, which is all the more reason for the Government to step in.

Sentiment score: -0.05

These are vulnerable workers. Covalen had turnover of €722 million and a profit of €26.2 million and despite that is offering statutory redundancy, which is an absolute scandal. The parent company works on many other public sector accounts for the Government. An employer that treats employees like this really needs to be looked at when the public sector contracts are up for grabs. Some 20,000 jobs have been cut by the tech sector. This should be a wake-up call for Government. Government and the Department should be meeting them. These workers are not asking for any special treatment but they need the Government’s help to end this six-month cooling-off period, so that they can work again in the same sector, put money in their pockets with a fair redundancy scheme, reform the redundancy procedures to improve their terms and legislate for their right to join a union. It is absolutely scandalous in this day and age that unions are kept out of some of these tech companies. I ask the Minister to intervene on behalf of workers to ensure they are treated fairly and receive what is due to them.

Sentiment score: 0.06

We have all seen the devastation Israel has unleashed on the Middle East since 2023. Gaza has been razed to the ground, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and 70,000 have been killed. At the same time, in 2024, at the height of this onslaught by Israel, the Minister's Department approved €20 million worth of dual-use technology to the IDF and the Israeli Ministry for Defense. Will the Minister explain to the people of Ireland, and the people of Palestine, why the Government gave approval for this?

Sentiment score: 0.01

I thank the Minister for the reply. Have there been any reviews of the position since 2024? Let us talk through the facts. As the Minister has explained, to export dual-use technology, which is technology with civilian and military capabilities such as computers, chips and software, a licence is required, as the Minister explained. At least 11 dual-use licences were granted for goods, worth €35 million, to be exported to Israel, €20 million of that in 2024 alone at the height of the attacks on Gaza. The Currency reports that the end user of the these goods were the IDF and the Israeli Ministry for Defense. There are severe consequences under international law for exporting dual-use goods to a state sponsor of terrorism or a conflict zone. Crimes Israel committed in Gaza and is continuing to commit are under investigation by the International Court of Justice. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has already found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, and former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, have arrest warrants against them. The Minister cannot claim he did not know what was happening. Is Ireland going to be complicit in continuing to support the genocide in Gaza because of decisions taken by the Department?

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I asked whether there had been any review because no dual licences for export to Israel were granted in 2025 and 2026. Was there some recognition that the technology was being used to facilitate military action across the Middle East, or did something change from 2025 onward? Why did the Government continue to permit dual-use exports in 2024 at the height of the onslaught and attacks? These are questions that need to be answered. Was there a change in tack? Did the Government review it? Did it realise that it had been making a mistake and that parts of the State were complicit? In May 2024, Ireland recognised, finally, the State of Palestine, but in the same year, €20 million worth of technology was sanctioned to the IDF and the Israeli Ministry of Defense to assist them. By the end of that year, every single hospital in Gaza was either damaged or destroyed, 70,000 people had been killed, families were wiped out and homes and schools had been reduced to rubble. It is incomprehensible that an Irish Government would still continue to use dual licences to export to Israel. While the Government is speaking out on banning the exports of goods, actions speak louder than words.

Sentiment score: -0.11

The Minister was recently on the airwaves speaking about the huge volume of exports to Russia from the State and assuring us that the figures presented by the Central Statistics Office were, in fact, incorrect. He is on record saying that the CSO was the gold standard for statistics and that a current investigation of the plant in Aughinish would be carried out by the Department. We all want openness about this. Will the Minister update the House on the investigation and confirm whether it has been completed? Will he publish its findings?

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I thank the Minister for the reply. Can he give an approximate time? Will it be by the end of the year, the middle of next year or the end of next year? As the Minister said, there is a question and it is valid. Legitimate questions are being asked about the plant exporting raw material to Russia to fuel the illegal attacks on Ukraine. Everybody in the House appreciates the level of employment the company provides in the Limerick and north Kerry area. At the same time, nobody is saying that its products should be used to assist an illegal war effort. There is a question mark. Society is questioning how it has been permitted to continue and why the Government has been so slow to conduct an investigation. The Ukrainian Embassy has expressed serious concern about the continued sales to Russia, including for weapons such as ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles and Shahed drones, the weapons we hear are being used against Ukrainian cities every week.

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I will finish on this. Even if it was an error to state that 80% of the company's exports went to Russia in 2025 and the true figure is 45%, that is still unacceptable.

Sentiment score: -0.22

It is important, as I think the Minister will accept, that the Government step in, maybe with EU officials, to diversify this plant's market away from Russia because jobs are needed in the area and must be saved. That will not be an issue if the Russian exports are stopped, so it is a distraction to frame this as a risk to Limerick jobs. There is a huge global market for alumina and aluminium products outside of Russia - in Europe and other stable economies. The main reason alumina is not on the EU's Russian sanctions list is that any sanction would disproportionately damage European industry. This does not absolve the Government of its responsibility to prevent Aughinish Alumina from fuelling the Russia war effort and drone campaign against Ukrainians. We do not want to see any items or products from Ireland being used to facilitate weaponry directly or indirectly - we are a neutral country - in any illegal war in Ukraine, or anywhere else for that matter. We must be completely confident no products are ending up in the hands of the military. Will the Minister give an approximate timeline for the completion of the review? Has he given the individuals preparing the report a deadline by which he wants to see results?

Sentiment score: -0.14