Mattie McGrath challenged a colleague's attendance at the World Economic Forum, arguing they had told him they would not attend and asking whether they raised Ireland's neutrality and citizens' hardships. He also recounted his own engagements at Davos, including an IDA dinner with companies and meetings with Ukrainian officials.
Davos attendance questioned
He told the Dáil he had asked a colleague before they travelled whether they intended to attend the World Economic Forum and said they had replied they would not, yet the colleague attended the following day. He pressed whether Ireland's proud record of neutrality was raised at the event and whether the hardship faced by Irish citizens had been highlighted.
IDA dinner and investment focus
He described attending a dinner hosted by the IDA with 30 companies that have interests in Ireland. He said the occasion was used to encourage further investment and to identify what companies in life sciences, technology and other areas see as Ireland's needs for jobs and economic progress.
Ukraine diplomacy at Davos
He reported meeting the mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, and the foreign minister, noting their dedication and exhaustion amid intense diplomatic demands. He said Davos provided an important platform for Ukraine to advocate for support and that those efforts contributed to the European Union granting candidate status.
Concerns about domestic hardship
He expressed expectations that the concerns of citizens struggling with food, fuel and education costs would be raised at high-level meetings. He framed those domestic hardships as a key issue that should be addressed alongside international engagement such as Davos.
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and I did ask you here in the Dáil before you went there where you were going and you had told me that you weren't, but actually you were there the day after, I did ask you before you attended would you be attending and you said you didn't intend to, the World Economic Forum as my question refers to, and you explained to the House here about all your meetings and engagement with multinationals, they're all fine and dandy, but did you mention to anyone that we have a proud record of neutrality here? in this country and did you think what a while to mention or have you abandoned that idea completely and also I would expect and hope that you did raise the hardship that our citizens are facing here because of issues coming from the World Economic Forum and what they are deciding and their plans that you seem to be going home to sign up to rather than look after our people here who cannot put food on the table, put fuel in the cows and indeed try and educate their children so I would hope that you'd be able to that you would have brought those issues up when you were in at that very high powered meeting. Thank you. I attended a dinner hosted by the IDA with 30 companies who are in Ireland, who have interests in Ireland, but we took the opportunity to suggest they could invest more in Ireland. We do use those occasions to identify what they feel the needs are within Ireland and how best Ireland can progress. These are companies in the life sciences and technology and in other areas and so it's a very, very useful occasion for Ireland to advance its cause, to advocate for workers and for jobs in our economy and in our society. But equally then there is a very strong political element to it as well around the war on Ukraine. I met the mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko and the foreign minister. And again one was struck by the enormous dedication of these officials and these political representatives of Ukraine. They looked exhausted at that particular meeting that day, the rounded meetings they had to engage in on behalf of their people. So we can have a go at Davos and people can have a go at it, but when you see a country like Ukraine that's under enormous pressure, Davos was extremely useful for them to be able to advocate for their people in terms of a whole range of issues and their diplomacy was very impressive, I have to say, and it led actually as well to the European Union granting them candidate status for the European Union.
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