I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 40 together. Pursuing agreement on the next EU long-term budget, that is, the multi-annual financial framework, is a key priority for the Irish Presidency. It overarches all our priorities. The Government is advancing negotiations at a critical juncture. We, as the Presidency, are bringing member states closer to agreement on key issues, such as the overall size of the long-term budget, where the EU should focus its resources and where funding should come from. The General Aff…

Deputy Moynihan will also want to hear about the Common Agricultural Policy but I will leave it to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to talk about whiskey. The EU budget negotiations are exactly that; a negotiation. It is not like countries are negotiating with the EU. What is the EU? It is the member states of the EU, so it is a negotiation between the member states as to what the priorities are and how much we will spend. It is our role in the Presidency to chair those talks effectively. We have to act as an honest b…

Food security is one of the foundational reasons for the European Union's existence. The Common Agricultural Policy is a treaty-based policy which the European Union has long been committed to. However, some member states tell us that we need to look at other priorities, particularly competitiveness, as I mentioned. We are trying to get agreement on that. It is also fair to say that in my discussions with Ministers around the European table, many of them have prioritised the Common Agricultural Policy and particula…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 85 together. Ireland strongly supports EU enlargement as the European Union's most effective policy for ensuring the security, stability and prosperity of our Union. Ireland strongly benefited from EU membership and we believe that other European countries deserve the same opportunities that European Union membership has brought to us, provided that the necessary reforms are implemented. EU enlargement is also a key priority of our EU Presidency and takes up a lot of my time a…

I thank Deputy Ward. I am sure the Minister and the Government will take this matter very much into account. The very fact we opened up new missions in the region in the past year in particular means we are now less thinly spread. Before our embassy was opened in Serbia, which was relatively recently, Montenegro was covered from Budapest, along with other countries, including Serbia. Now the staff of the embassy in Budapest have more time and can also focus on Kosovo, where they are still accredited, while the emba…

Deputy Ward has made all of his points very well. Again, it is important to remember that the focus of our missions abroad is primarily to support our citizens, to contribute to the promotion of our political and economic interests and to promote our culture internationally. I am familiar with a number of cases in the region that we will never see in the media or on social media where diplomats are really going out of their way to help Irish citizens who have got into difficulties of various kinds. We all know abou…

I thank the Deputy. I also thank him for mentioning that it is mid-term because today we are basically three months gone with three calendar months to go. We strongly support EU enlargement. It is a key priority. We have already secured significant progress on the enlargement files and we want to maintain that progress. The entire Government, including the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I are working every day to make this a reality. In July, during the first month of our Presidency, I chaired the …

All I can say is that those three countries are on the list for major progress this year. As I said, however, it requires every single member state of the EU to agree. Even this week, I have had quite a number of discussions, including with the Moldovans yesterday and the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister the day before. I am in constant contact with the Montenegrin Government. I have also had discussions with existing member states about how we can move the process forward. We are working very hard to bring more neg…

As a matter of fact, ministers from a number of member states raised that issue at a number of the meetings we have had recently. What happened in terms of that funeral was simply not appropriate for somebody who had been jailed for genocide. It was totally and utterly inappropriate. We know, though, that in Serbia there is a part of the population that very much wants to have strong ties with the EU. The current Acting President, Ms Ana Brnabić, was Prime Minister when I was previously Minister of State for Europe…

First, if the Deputy has read the letter from Chancellor Merz, she will know that he did not say the cohesion budget should be slashed or that a wartime economy should be funded. Pursuing agreement on the next MFF is a top priority for the Irish Presidency. The Irish Presidency has advanced work ambitiously and at pace over recent months in an effort to bring member states closer to a consensus and with a view to concluding overarching negotiations on the MFF by the end of 2026. In an effort to do so, the Presidenc…

The Deputy referred to a slashing of cohesion funding

I am glad I pushed back against the Deputy's initial question because she went on to quote from the letter. The letter also says there should be cuts across all the headings and that the member states that signed it accept an increase in the EU budget. During our Presidency, I have to represent not just this country but all the member states and what they want is a cut to the increases proposed by the European Commission. They have accepted that there will be an increase in the EU budget. We have to balance that. W…

Farmers are a very significant focus of the MFF. They are hugely significant focus. Before our Presidency, we put forward our priorities and briefed Members of the Dáil and of the European Parliament on them. Those priorities we set out included agriculture and a real commitment to European engagement abroad. They also included competitiveness. What is competitiveness about? It is about making sure that we keep good-paying jobs in the European Union. That includes farming and small and medium enterprises. It also i…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 125, 140, 157 and 185 together. I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister. A commitment to reform what is known as the triple lock was set out in the programme for Government. The rationale for this reform is that the current requirement for a UN Security Council constrains Ireland's ability to participate in peacekeeping and crisis management operations because of the use, or threat of use, of a veto by any permanent member of the UN Security Council. The Government consi…

-----in accordance with UN principles and, of course, in accordance with our own Constitution, which commits us to peace and friendly relations among nations. The triple lock is a statutory mechanism. The reforms are designed to ensure that Ireland can continue to make an effective contribution to international peace support and crisis management missions while preserving our policy of military neutrality and maintaining robust democratic oversight of overseas deployments. The Bill contains clear safeguards. Overse…

We are bound by international law. We are bound by international law since our Constitution came into force and we continue to be bound by international law and always will be, no matter what happens to this legislation. International law governs what we do as a Government. Article 29 of the Constitution constrains us and we have to operate in accordance with its principles. Article 29 requires us to promote international law, friendly relations among the nations and peace, essentially. Those are legal requirements…

That can mean those.

Switzerland, the classical neutral country that is not even a member of the European Union and will never join the European Union, it is so neutral and independent, accepts UN, EU and OSCE mandates. I understand the situation is similar in Austria, which is another neutral country. By the way, it is also similar in Germany. I cannot find any other country in the world where the government has to go to the UN. There have been problems at the UN Security Council. The truth is that if the triple lock continues, Irish …

To be clear on what our troops will be doing, they will be doing peacekeeping, peace enforcement and conflict prevention. That is what the law says; not what the Deputy imagines it to be. We are bound by our Constitution and international law. The legislation changes nothing in that regard. Ireland has been a member of Partnership for Peace for more than 25 years. We heard the same scare stories more than 25 years ago about Ireland joining Partnership for Peace but people do not seem to realise we are in it. Some M…

The Deputy is absolutely correct. I do not know whether his colleagues in Sinn Féin are left or right at this stage. I am not sure they know themselves where they sit in the pecking order but they keep saying-----