Let me begin by agreeing with the Deputy on one point, which is that Bord Bia is indeed an exemplary organisation. It is an organisation that is fulfilling its mandate with distinction and it is doing so at a time of huge geopolitical and geoeconomic uncertainty. Last year, we saw Irish agrifood exports exceed more than €21 billion. Bord Bia is, therefore, excelling. Bord Bia is doing an exceptional job. Considering that the vast amount of food we produce in this country is exported, its role is indeed vital. We saw only last week China open its markets to Irish beef, which is an example of the work done by Bord Bia, Government and Government agencies in terms of opportunities for Irish food. Issues in relation to governance or conflicts of interest, perceived or real, are, indeed, important. I do not dispute that but so too is process. Process is extremely important. Far be it from the Deputy's framing of the situation, this morning, in fact, perhaps while we are in this Chamber, the board of Bord Bia is meeting and considering all of these matters. That is the appropriate, responsible, fair way of considering and examining any issue when it arises, not shouting and roaring at each other on the floor of this House.
Sentiment score: 0.24
That is the way business should be done. In fact, that is not just my view; it is actually the view of the president of the Irish Farmers Association. The Deputy wraps himself in the mantle of speaking for farmers. Their elected representative said in his statement yesterday that the correct forum to address this issue is with the chair and other directors at a board meeting. He also had the decency to say that he was then happy to await the outcome of that meeting to see what the answers were and hear from the chair before delivering his view. That is a responsible thing to do. That is also what the Minister for agriculture will do because the Minister has asked that he would receive a detailed report on all of these matters from Bord Bia directly following today's board meeting. Far be it from any of the accusations or obfuscation or any of the words the Deputy threw at me or at the Government here, we are going to follow due process. This place is not a kangaroo court where we just come in and say, "Off with your head". We actually have boards. We have legislation. I have confidence in the board of Bord Bia to do its duty in examining any issues, perceived or real, that would arise and then give its view to the Minister in line with how this place operates and how Government operates. I have confidence in that process. I have confidence in the speed at which Bord Bia has convened its board meeting and, indeed, that the chair has sought an opportunity to engage with the board. The comments of the president of the IFA, Mr. Francie Gorman, in relation to that being the correct forum to address the issue is absolutely the right course of action.
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You are at it again, Deputy, and you have done it in this House so many times. You just come in, say somebody's name and call for them to be sacked. Do you remember your leader did that with a former Garda Commissioner and how badly that backfired on your party?
Sentiment score: -0.03
Due process matters. Just because the Deputy has read a headline or heard this or that: what is the purpose of a board of directors if the Deputy does not actually want it to have met this morning. It is meeting right now. Can he wait a few minutes? Can he wait for board members to sit down, have a conversation and then report to the Minister, or does it have to be now, in time for the 1 o'clock news? Come on now, let us have a little bit of fairness here. This shoot first and ask questions later, that the Deputy's party is steeped in, does not serve democracy well. I have every confidence in the process. I have every confidence in Bord Bia to discharge its duty and in the board of Bord Bia to discharge its corporate governance duties. I have every confidence in our excellent Minister for agriculture to respond to any detailed report he receives from the board.
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We have confidence in a process. Process matters. I know process, democracy and all of that are really inconvenient. Kangaroo courts are much easier but actually allowing somebody an opportunity to talk and answer questions and a board to give a considered view is how this Government functions, and that is a stark difference between this Government and our responsible politics and your populism.
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Let the process commence.
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I thank Deputy Kelly for his leadership on this issue. I acknowledge his Bill and thank him for the role the committee he chairs is playing in this regard. I, too, commend Gráinne Seoige on going before the committee. In recent times, what we have seen in relation to Grok and the use of AI to undress and produce nudified images is dehumanising, degrading and disgusting. There absolutely is an onus on all of us in the House - as the Deputy rightly says, it is not a party political issue - to come together to respond. I commit today that the Government absolutely will engage constructively with him on his Bill. My colleagues Deputies Boland, Butterly and Keogh are also producing a Bill on this issue. I am sure all parties in the House are considering how best to grapple with it. I want to say a couple of things on the record of the House to be helpful in terms of working out where gaps may exist and where there is legal clarity. I acknowledge the huge work done on Coco's Law by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, during her time in the Department of justice. The sharing of non-consensual intimate images and the production and-or sharing of images, whether AI-generated or not, is illegal in Ireland under Coco's Law. The latest figures show around 99 cases in respect of sections 2, 3 or 4 of the Act have been taken between its commencement in 2021 and the end of 2023. We have seen 23 cases prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court. However, the Deputy is right about the technology moving so fast. It was always envisaged, at both domestic and EU level, that we would have to continue to review laws and ensure they keep pace with technology. That is why the Taoiseach and I convened a meeting this week with several Ministers and also with Coimisiún na Meán and with the Attorney General. The Minister for communications, Deputy O'Donovan, working with the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is committed to bringing proposals forward to the Cabinet within the next few weeks. I have another suggestion, which I make to be constructive. Under the EU's AI Act, there is a list of prohibited practices. Our own advisory council has suggested that we as a country should seek the amendment of Article 5 of the Act by expanding it to include the prohibition of AI practices that allow users to generate non-consensual intimate images. My understanding is that under Article 112(1) of the Act, the European Commission must carry out an annual assessment of whether the Article 5 prohibited practices list should be amended and to report its finding to both the European Parliament and the Council - in other words, to try to create a mechanism to keep the prohibited list up to date. Yes, let us work domestically. Yes, let us work to see what legislative changes may be required here in Ireland, and we will work constructively on that. Let us also ask our representatives at European level and, indeed, the Irish Presidency later this year to work to see whether we can amend the AI Act, alongside the work we should and will do in this country to improve our own legislation.
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Just in case there is any confusion I am agreeing with the Deputy in principle entirely that the responsibility here has to be on the company. The way that has been transposed into national legislation has been under the infrastructure of the AI Act. This Government will work constructively with the Deputy, with his party and with his committee on any improvements or changes we can make to Irish legislation. I too do not care where the idea comes from or who has the good idea or the best idea because we all want to do the same thing. What we have seen here is dehumanising, degrading and disgusting. It has had a real, profound impact on many people in the country and across the world. People have been directly impact and there is also the chilling and general disgusting feel people have sensed from the abuse of technology and from AI. We need to act and we will act. The committee hearing yesterday was a useful and important starting point. The recommendations of our AI advisory group are also good. These are the experts in this area. That is why we convened our meeting this week. It is why the Minister is due to report to Government. I will ask the Minister to proactively engage with Deputy Kelly and all the Opposition parties because we need to pull together on this and show Ireland can absolutely lead in innovation but we can also lead in protecting our values, protecting children, protecting women and making sure technology is never abused.
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I thank Deputy O'Callaghan very much for raising the matter. Just to remind all of us, including myself, the original idea in relation to a Board of Peace – I will get to what I think are the very serious issues with it – arose from the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict which on 17 November received support from the United Nations. On 17 November the United Nations voted to adopt a resolution endorsing the comprehensive plan and it was envisaged that as the next stage of that plan there would be the formation of some form of board to assist in advancing it. Of course Ireland and many other countries around Europe and the world were eager to play a constructive role. A country like Ireland can of course bring to that table significant experience in conflict resolution, decommissioning, respect for international law and our long-standing commitment to a two-state solution. That is the context. Let me also be very clear what we are seeing today at this signing ceremony could not be further removed from that original conversation and the Deputy’s comments are right about the lack of reference to Gaza and the very serious red flags. Anything Putin is considering joining with the word “peace” in it does not sit well. The cost of $1 billion to join does not sit well and also anything that in any way seeks to undermine, replace or usurp the United Nations is not something the Government would support and I do not think it is something Dáil Éireann or the people of Ireland would support either. There are very significant governance issues with it as well, including that, as envisaged, the charter suggests the President of the United States – as in the current incumbent – would be the chair and that person would also have the ability to designate his successor and appoint, remove and renew members of the executive, so you could pay the $1 billion and be kicked off the thing. There is a whole range of very serious issues here. What the Taoiseach is doing on behalf of the Government by not turning up at the signing ceremony today is entirely responsible. I was at a meeting of EPP leaders yesterday and no European leader has turned up at the signing ceremony bar President Trump’s ally, if you like, Prime Minister Orbán of Hungary. It is our expectation that at the European Council dinner this evening of European heads of state and heads of government that this issue will further be considered. I am not suggesting Deputy O’Callaghan is but I would not like to see our position in any way misrepresented. We have not joined the board, we did not turn up at the signing ceremony but we are obviously going to discuss it with our EU colleagues because Europe needs to stand united in supporting the primacy of the United Nations and making sure we get the focus back here to what was meant to be phase 2 of the peace plan for Gaza. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who is here with us, was in the Middle East last week, I believe. She was at the Rafah crossing seeing for herself the impact of Irish humanitarian aid - of funding from the people of this country - but also seeing what more can and must be done. The Taoiseach was right to make the point Ireland is very eager to see how we can play a practical role in trying to help alleviate the most horrific humanitarian situation.
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Unlike some governments around the world I do not stand up and single-handedly make decisions and announce them without engagement with colleagues. My personal view and the view of Government colleagues is that we cannot see any scenario in which Ireland can participate in the so-called Board of Peace as currently constructed. Of course, it would be a very different situation were we back to where the UN was on 17 November in terms of countries genuinely coming together in a board to genuinely try to help move phase 2 of a resolution to the horrific conflict and indeed genocide we have seen in Gaza. Process does matter. I do not want to be argumentative on this but we heard calls in this House that the Government should introduce retaliatory tariffs and hit the Trump administration. Thank God we did not take that advice. We worked through the process with our European colleagues and we managed to get to a situation where additional tariffs were not imposed and managed to calm down the economic situation, so process matters. Allowing the Government the opportunity to sit down with our European colleagues to discuss and tease through a European response to global issues is sometimes a prudent thing to do.
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On the occupied territories Bill, the position is as outlined by the Taoiseach. The Minister received the Attorney General's advice just before Christmas. She has gone back with further questions and we will engage with the Oireachtas on it in due course.
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I agree with the Deputy. I am also grateful to him for raising the issue of Iran. It is not raised nearly often enough in this House. The brutal, disgusting repression we have seen of the brave Iranian protesters should be called out, as should the heroism of those protesters, who are standing up for their future and the aspiration they rightly have to live in a free, safe and democratic country and to have a better future for them, their children and grandchildren. It is an aspiration shared by every political party in this House and by the people of Ireland. We stand in solidarity with the brave protesters of Iran and will work at all levels, nationally and internationally, through all multilateral institutions and through our membership of the European Union to continue to shine a spotlight on the horrific brutality of the Iranian regime and the importance of standing in solidarity and support, and looking for demonstrable ways to show our support for those exercising their right to protest. In this country, we stand for freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and access to information and these rights must be fully respected. The brutal regime in Iran can cut the Internet, but the genie is out of the bottle. The people of the world have seen the brutality of the Iranian regime. It is there for all to see. While it has tried to silence the protesters, it has failed and will fail. We call on the Iranian authorities to refrain from violence, to immediately restore communications and to uphold the fundamental rights of all Iranians, but we say so knowing this is not a regime that has shown any interest in doing that. That is why the Iranian ambassador designate was invited to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 12 January, for our concerns to be strongly conveyed to the regime in Tehran. We remain concerned about Iran's malign role in the region, specifically its support of armed non-state actors, or terrorists, such as Hezbollah, the militias in Iraq and the Houthis. Ireland is also concerned about Iran's ongoing weapons and weapons-technology transfers to Russia in support of its war of aggression in Ukraine. Sometimes things can seem far away and distant, but there is a direct correlation between Iran providing technology to Russia, which is carrying out a war on the continent of Europe, and all the disruption it is causing and the fundamental violation of rights. In common with the international community, Ireland wants to see a negotiated settlement that addresses worries about Iran's nuclear programme. There are already significant sanctions in place on Iran in relation to nuclear activities, the supply of weapons to Russia and specific human rights violations. The EU continues to review its sanctions policies. I would encourage an active review of the sanctions policy to see what more we can do at a European level. In principle, Ireland will support any additional sanctions for any violation of human rights and continue to review those proposals. On some of the specific questions, I will ask the Minister and the Department of foreign affairs to come back to the Deputy with any detail. However, I share the Deputy's view. The Iranian community in Ireland wants to see a better future for their country and I want them to know the people of this country stand with them.
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Absolutely. I forgot to say in my first answer that I will take a look at the wording of the European Parliament resolution because I am not familiar with it. However, the Deputy is right that when we talk about peace and stability in the Middle East, it is hard, or almost impossible, to have that conversation without also looking at the situation in Iran. While Ireland is neutral and will remain neutral, that means we are militarily unaligned. The principles we have in relation to international law, human rights, democracy, freedom of expression and support for freedom of assembly are not in any way in conflict with our military neutrality. In many ways, they are complementary to it. The Deputy can therefore be assured that as we prepare for our Presidency, one of the many tracks we will pursue - the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will be working up our programme for the track in relation to our values in international law - will involve keeping a firm focus on the Middle East, standing up for human rights and international law and ensuring we continue to call out the brutality being shown to peaceful protesters assembling for a better future for them and their families.
Sentiment score: 0.30