Ireland is in favour of a multilateral, rules-based international order and has consistently advocated for same. We believe in immediate de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, and particularly in Iran. We believe these issues ultimately, in terms of a sustainable resolution, has to be via diplomatic channels. Diplomacy, ultimately, is the only route that can sustainably bring about a lasting peace. It has to be also said that the multilateral order has been dysfunctional for quite some time. The Deputy referenced the UN Security Council. It has been paralysed and powerless for quite some time in the prevention of war and conflict and in holding repressive regimes to account or in any way intervening in terms of those regimes. For a long time now, Iran has been a very malign influence in the world and in the Middle East, and, as the Deputy has acknowledged, in its repression of women and the LGBT community. The regime has executed thousands of Iranians for advocating for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and for seeking change through democratic channels. The international rules-based order, if we are honest about it, was absolutely powerless and paralysed to intervene there to prevent the execution of thousands of people. We believe in a multilateral-based order, but we have to see reality too in terms of the full picture in this regard. Let us remember that for decades, Iran has sponsored Hamas. It has sponsored terror all over the Middle East. It sponsored and armed Hezbollah. It supported Assad and was key to keeping him and his brutal regime in power for a long time. It sent drones to the Russian military to kill innocent Ukrainians. These are realities that the Deputy has glossed over. I know Sinn Féin does not support Ukraine.
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Deputy McDonald referenced Ukraine. It is the truth. Sinn Féin opposed the €90 billion loan from Europe to Ukraine. If we were to follow Sinn Féin's advice, it would have been tantamount to asking Ukraine to surrender now to the Russians.
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There is no way on earth that Ukraine could sustain itself in a budgetary sense or in defending itself if it did not get that €90 billion from the European Union. Putin was delighted. If everybody else took the Sinn Féin view, the happiest man globally would be Putin. That was Sinn Féin's contribution to trying to resolve injustice and conflict in the world.
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We have had this in other parts of the world, including Africa and so on, where democratic governments have been overthrown and people have been powerless. That has happened in the Sahel and so on. There are issues, no question, about where we are. There was no UN mandate for this action. No one is saying there was, and there was not. However, it is impossible to get a UN mandate even for peacekeeping now so paralysed and dysfunctional is the Security Council.
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We are in a very serious and dangerous situation.
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I think history-----
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-----in reflecting on this period will see 7 October as a disastrous catalyst-----
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-----for the uncertainty and instability of the world.
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First of all, I am very clear. I am a multilateralist. I believe in peace and the pacific resolution of all conflict. I believe this conflict should be de-escalated as quickly as possible and those involved should get back to the negotiating table and resolve this through diplomacy. As I said, that is the only sustainable way forward. The Deputy can put whatever spin she likes on my contribution but I am very clear in respect of those basic principles in terms of the conduct of international affairs. However, what I have said cannot be contested in terms of how the Iranian regime not only suppresses its own people-----
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-----but was responsible for the deaths of many innocent people across not just the Middle East but globally. It has sponsored terrorists. Sinn Féin has looked the other way for years on that.
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The Deputy is accusing me of a lack of clarity. Her organisation has supported the Republican party in the United States for decades in terms of financial contributions to Republican and MAGA candidates across the United States.
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We are very clear on upholding the international rule of law. This bombing campaign is not in accordance with a UN mandate. I totally accept the Deputy's bona fides. She has been consistent on Iran, but the international rules-based order has been powerless to do anything about Iran, if we are honest, over a long period. That does raise questions. It is not a new question; it is a decades-old question in terms of intervention. There have been interventions by previous American presidents with consequences that were long-lasting in a negative sense. We know all of that but, equally, regimes have been allowed and sanctions have not been enough to shift those regimes into facilitating democracy within their jurisdictions or at least allowing their civilians freedom of movement and speech and the opportunities to change by democratic channels. The Deputy described the brutal crackdown of the Mahsa Amini protest, which was about the liberation of women within in Iran. It was brutal and the world was powerless and did nothing. We do not have full estimates relating to what happened only six weeks ago but some say it could be as high as 10,000 or 15,000 ordinary Iranians executed for just protesting. There are moral dilemmas everywhere. I take the Deputy's basic point that we do not believe in intervention without a UN mandate. No one is even disputing that but, equally, there is a huge issue with this regime. The challenges, as the Deputy said, relate to instability across the region. That is why we are calling for a de-escalation and getting back around the negotiating table. These negotiations on the nuclear file have been going on since 2005 or 2007. That is how long they have been going on. They have been dragged out, as has the ballistics programme. I met Bernard Phelan as well. At will the Iranian regime just kidnapped European citizens, put them in prison and then ransomed or blackmailed western governments to try to get them released. That was the modus operandi. Bernard Phelan and people he met in prison had a fairly brutal imprisonment. Some of them have yet to get out of those prisons in Iran.
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St. Patrick's Day will come and go. It is the more enduring sustainable relationship between the US and Ireland that is important, but park that for a moment. St. Patrick's Day will come and go. There will be many of those, but the relationship is much deeper and much more substantial than that. Let us be honest about that too. The Deputy referenced the UN Security Council. By virtue of the composition post Second World War, it is no longer fit for purpose. I am not criticising every member of the UN, but the reality is with Russia, China, the US-----
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Please. The alternative is a much broader UN Security Council without the veto of these three powers. That is the obvious way. Africa should be represented.
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South America should be represented. People who can make a contribution-----
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Vast populations of the world are not represented on the Security Council and all we are getting is veto after veto after veto. We cannot get peacekeeping missions approved by the UN Security Council. One of the most sustainable peacekeeping missions that we have been involved in is Lebanon and, at the behest of the US, the Security Council has put a deadline on that for next year. Those are the realities of a UN Security Council that has not been fit for purpose for a long time.
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Ireland believes fundamentally in international rule of law. We are a multilateral nation and all our work over the past number of years has been dedicated to those principles in every single form that we attend under the auspices of the United Nations, the European Union or, indeed, other international organisations. International law is not being adhered to and has not been for quite some time by many actors. That is the reality. Prime Minister Carney called that out in Davos and described the reality of the international world order as we see it today. The House is agreed on the brutality of the Iranian regime but if we are all honest, one would not have thought that for the past three years because there was rarely a debate in here about Iran. There was barely a motion here about the malign views of Iran. I think someone on the backbenches here raised it. It might have been the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, some years ago, who put a formal position here on the Iranian regime. There was a studied silence here. The Deputy can accuse me of this, that and the other but on the Opposition side, there was a one-directional approach to the international order. At times, even the Russian aggression is condemned and put aside in a formulaic way. We are very clear. First, I condemn the killing of children anywhere in any situation. Children and innocent civilians must always be prioritised, without question. One of the big challenges for the UN is that we are similar to where we were prior to the demise of the League of Nations. There is a serious issue in the world. It is dangerous, without question. There is an absence of an international rules-based order right now. Of that, there is no question. It is dangerous for small nations like Ireland which depend on an international rules-based order for our security because we are not a military nation. We do not have military power. We are fundamentally a peacekeeping nation. That is our orientation and that has been our contribution, as well as humanitarian aid to many troubled spots in the world. We have contributed Irish personnel to conflict resolution all over the world. We have done it in Mozambique, Colombia and elsewhere. That is our contribution and to try to characterise the Irish position as anything else is disingenuous. That is how we perform on an international level. We also realise the limits of what we can do globally and internationally. We are clear that the only sustainable way forward, which will require the world to engage collectively, is a proper international rules-based order that can also deal effectively with rogue and oppressive regimes, which it has failed to deal with for three or four decades.
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In terms of the energy situation, from anecdotal accounts, it would appear there is a degree of price-gouging is going on. In our view, both the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should closely monitor what is happening and people who have complaints should immediately complain to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the CRU. The working family payment will start on Thursday and an extra 50,000 families will benefit from the fuel allowance. Those on the working family payment will benefit from the fuel allowance and will receive back pay to January. That will be a help to that cohort. We will keep an urgent review of the situation as it unfolds because there is the potential of a crisis here, clearly, similar to what happened in terms of the invasion of Ukraine and the consequential energy crisis that occurred there. We will keep this under continual review in terms of how it develops over the next number of days and weeks.
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In terms of the overall energy situation, the Deputy is correct in saying that there is no necessity for home heating oil to increase, given that many people will have had that oil in stock and, indeed, much of that oil comes via Britain and Norway, not from the Middle East. That has been the source for quite a long time. The Deputy has conflated a lot of issues. General revenue - all revenues, for example from energy or income tax - goes to fund social services in the State. If we were to eliminate all revenue on fuel, we would have a very significant hole in the sustainable budget, which would take services away from education, health and social protection. We are already being criticised for having too narrow a tax base in terms of fiscal sustainability over the next 20 to 30 years. The Deputy wants to narrow that tax base even more. On the carbon tax, the bottom line is that every cent of that carbon tax is given back to people in terms of the fuel allowance and, in particular, the expansion of the fuel allowance to cover more people, including the working family payment cohort, with 50,000 people on top of all those on social protection. The Deputy is now saying let us pull the rug from under the fuel poverty initiatives we have created and from under the retrofit industry-----
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-----because around €553 million of the carbon tax is going towards retrofitting.
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Retrofitting helps people to reduce their bills on a sustainable basis into the future. Third, that would be pulling the rug from under farmers who will benefit this year to the tune of €173 million from the carbon tax revenue in the form of agri-environmental schemes in terms of the ACRES programme. I argued for a carbon tax at the beginning of the 2020 Government on the basis that it would provide us with funding to enable change to happen. There is no way you could fund the retrofit programme without a dedicated ring-fenced budget. There is no way you could do that on a sustainable basis. We have created an industry and a lot of opportunities for workers and new companies in retrofitting. Does the Deputy want to take all that away over night and take away that clarity and certainty of landscape that is out there until 2030 and beyond? We do accept, without question, there is pressure on people and there potentially might be even greater pressure as a result of this crisis but we will look at that in the round in terms of how we can support people more generally regarding supports. We will keep that under review as it unfolds. That is a more effective way of dealing with this and helping to support people. In the budget, prior to the outbreak of war, we supported those most in need and we targeted the resources to working families on low incomes and those on social protection as opposed to a universal approach.
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Actually, the Deputy asked me in the first iteration – he can check it – to scrap it. That is what he said, so it is not a temporary limitation. He opposed it anyway.
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Then why is he trying to pretend? He has opposed it from the beginning. He is just duplicitous in terms of his approach.
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The Deputy will say whatever matters on the day to advance his position. He thinks electorally and politically. That is just what he does.
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Could I just make the point that we did reduce VAT on electricity and gas bills from 13% to 9%-----
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-----and we have extended that out to 2030. As I said, we have extended fuel allowance to 26% of the population. As I said, as this situation unfolds, we will keep this under review. We have always responded to people’s needs, as we did during the Ukrainian war crisis. We have to do so in a sustainable basis. That is our commitment - we will do it on a sustainable basis.
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