Richard Boyd Barrett on EU, Western Sahara and Sudan crises

The European Court of Justice nullified a trade agreement between the EU and Western Sahara. The African Union recognises Western Sahara as a place that is sovereign, should have self-determination, but it's occupied by Morocco. But the EU Commission refuses, essentially, to accept international law, respect the right of self-determination of the Western Saharan people, because it's engaged with Morocco in plundering the rare earth minerals, cobalt and so on, fish resources of the occupied people of Western Sahara. They're now trying to get around the European Court of Justice's ruling on this, which is in favour of the occupied Western Saharis, by talking about autonomy, which has nothing to do with what international law states, which you said you support, which is about the right to self-determination of an occupied people, and indeed the right of an occupied people is not to be occupied by Morocco, or for the European Union to plunder their resources with the Moroccan regime. So, and also, by the way, Ryanair have now started to fly in, despite the protests of the representatives of the Western Sahara people into Dakhla, in occupied Western Sahara, to the anger of the people who are occupied. So, will you reaffirm when the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara is being undermined by the European Union? Will you condemn what the European Union, the Commission, is doing and indicate your support for the right to self-determination of the Western Sahara people, indeed, for an end to their occupation, an end to Ryanair flights into occupied territory? First of all, I think Deputy Motokou was first into the breach, is that right? Yeah. And I would say that we are in a very turbulent situation, and then Deputy, and you referenced Sudan, trade, energy, debt, you're correct on the debt issue, USAID, it's a great pity the USAID have pulled back significantly, I would hope that that will be reviewed, because it is a significant loss to the world, and to the development world in particular. You again skilfully brought the EU-African summit back to Dundalk's wastewater treatment plant, which is not quite encompassed by the question, but I will talk to the Minister and let them know that you've been raising the issue. Just on Deputy Switz's point about Canada and Mark Carney, I met with the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, when I was at the high-level week in New York, at the United Nations, which all T-shirts go to on an annual basis. I took the opportunity to go to Canada for an overnight to meet him that morning, the following morning, he wants CETA signed and ratified, and we both discussed the benefits of CETA. I don't understand why you can't endorse it. But every trade agreement is going to have a mediation process and mechanism. Every trade agreement will have to have a mechanism process. The European courts dealt with that and clarified that significantly some time ago. The bottom line is, the enormity of growth in trade speaks for itself, which benefits people in this country. It benefits jobs, it benefits small companies, it benefits big companies. The benefits are there. And I really think the ideological sort of trade checkers that people have tied themselves into are very difficult to comprehend. And trade is our lifeblood as a small nation. The Canada-Europe trade deal has been effective in terms of growing trade between our two countries. Both ways, I would add, but equally for our own SMEs. And so I think we're going to press ahead now with the Arbitration Act, get that passed, enables us to ratify that deal, which I think is important. Deputy Moynihan raised the issue of Sudan, and so the Deputy of Kharul and Deputy Moynihan went at great length to point out the enormity of the atrocities that have been carried out, and the enormity of the impact of this war on so many, so many millions of people. And it is in many ways the forgotten war. It doesn't get discussed in this House to the same degrees as others. And you're correct, people talk about external actors. And the summit, the joint declaration of the African-EU summit, did condemn the atrocities committed in El Fashar by the Rapid Support Forces. It called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country, and also reaffirming the EU and EU support for a political process towards a unified and civilian transition led by the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. And we've consistently underlined, Ireland has said, OK, you also need to bring civil society actors into the process like we experience in Northern Ireland. That's very important in any mediation efforts. We need peaceful civilian transition process. There's ongoing negotiations to secure a three-month humanitarian truce, and that will require significant and sustained political will from the United States, who are endeavouring to get peace here. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, the so-called Quad, with the support of the European Union and the African Union, to bring the parties to the negotiating tables. Over three years of conflict have brought the worst humanitarian crisis, I'd say, globally. It is the worst. And you said 30 million not attending school. That's quite shocking. 30 million children not attending school. And then the savagery, the destruction of civilians is absolutely shocking. So we will work. We have made our contributions. Women and girls are particularly at grave risk of sexual and gender-based violence. So we try and support programmes to protect women and girls. Last year we provided about 14.3 million to support people most in need in Sudan and those displaced by the crisis in neighbouring countries. We will increase our funding this year in 2026. But I accept the sincerity of Deputy Moynihan in highlighting this. In terms of the Sahel, it was included in the Joint Declaration. Again, and sometimes I would like the African Union to be more energetic in terms of its interventions. From my perspective and from the perspective of the savagery of this and being taken place, it needs far more urgency in getting this resolved. And I understand and fully respect that the African Union, it's their domain, but this is an appalling, shocking situation. 22 million people now across the Sahel need humanitarian assistance. Across the Sahel there's been a number of coup d'etats. Russians have been involved. The Wagner Group have been involved. All sorts of deals have been done in terms of rare earth mining and so on like that. In exchange for security guarantees for the elites that have executed the coup d'etats. But that means that half of the Sahelian population, all those countries, are now living in poverty and below the poverty line. And the situation gets worse and migration increases as a result of that. And then the fundamentalists and ISIS gain traction in the rural parts of the Sahel as a result of all of this. So this has been a terrible deterioration over the last number of years. Again, we've contributed about 43.8 million between 21 and 24 to that region. We've maintained our development and humanitarian funding to the region as well. We opened our newest embassy in sub-Saharan Africa and Senegal in January of 2023, anxious to develop our presence in Francophone West Africa. And it's in Dakar, supports international development, peace and security in the region, in particular the Sahel. So we're increasing our presence in that part of the world. Somalia, we want a just and lasting peace in Somalia. And again, we acknowledge the federal government's efforts to strengthen these institutions and to implement legislative reforms. We're reliable partners for Somalia for decades. The European Union has made significant contributions, mobilised through the African peace facility and the European peace facility to the African Union. And again, we're open to participation. But again, it's very much at the invitation. And again, it will be a long time before the Security Council gets around to doing that. We haven't been invited to date on that. But these are issues we keep under review. The Deputy... Yeah, Boyd Barrett on the Western Sahara. Again, we have... I mean, the ECJ judgment is not as straightforward, maybe, as you suggested, in terms of... Sometimes since I read key aspects of it and read legal opinion in respect of it. But again, we need a peace agreement there. We need mediation. We need a resolution in terms of Western Sahara and Morocco. And in terms of Deputy Murphy's point of digital strategy, unique responsibility, we have the same responsibilities as everyone in Europe. I think you're wrong to say that we're hiding behind the European Commission. The Legislation Digital Markets Act is very clear in terms of that very, very large platforms over 45 million a week fall under the remit of the European Commission in terms of enforcement of the law and standards. And so the European Commission has announced that it's beginning an investigation into Grok and into X, which I think is significant. Meanwhile, on Gardaí Káin are also pursuing issues in terms of domestic Irish law, being broken in respect of child abuse images. And the Commission on the Man is also pursuing this. But the Commission on the Man has worked proactively with the European Commission, not hiding behind it, but working proactively with them in terms of its work. And it was anticipated. I convened a meeting of all the relevant ministers. I pay tribute to Niamh Smith for her forthright and assertive work in respect of this issue. But I met with all the relevant ministers, Justice Niamh Smith, Minister Patrick O'Donovan, and the Attorney-General and others, just to take stock on our existing laws. And also then, if our laws need strengthening in the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney-General will come back to government in respect of that latter part. Although the view is that the legislation we have in place between the 1998 Act in terms of child abuse and child protection and the 220 Act are actually sufficient. And there's a lot within them. Far to one issue around the generation of image. The sharing is outlawed and is a legal generation of image, per se, not. But there are complications around that. But they will come back to us in respect of that issue. Thank you. Thanks, Sir Tish.