Micheál Martin defends plan to help train Ukrainian troops

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has defended the Government’s decision to send members of the Defence Forces to help train Ukrainian troops.

Mr Martin said it does not threaten Ireland’s neutrality “in any shape or form”. The Tánaiste added the Government has “no intentions or any immediate plans whatsoever” to join Nato.

On Tuesday, the Government agreed for up to 30 Defence Forces personnel to provide training to the Ukrainian armed forces as part of the newly established European Union Military Assistance Mission.

The training is expected to take place in EU countries, and a small number of staff will also be based in Brussels and in Strausberg, Germany, to support the activity.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the decision to deploy troops was “in flagrant breach of our neutral status”.

The Dún Laoghaire TD said one year into the war in Ukraine, Ireland should be instead “using its voice on the international stage to call for peace, negotiations and to stop the terrifying escalation of this conflict that we are witnessing, which could bring the world to the brink of conflict”.

Mr Boyd Barrett added that Nato had a “bloody history” and was seeking to escalate the conflict “to the terrifying possibility that we could have a nuclear situation”.

In response, Mr Martin said the People Before Profit TD’s remarks were “deeply disturbing and unfair”. “You’ve asserted there in a very distorted manner, the idea that Nato wants to escalate the war on Ukraine to a nuclear status,” the Tánaiste said. “That is a disgraceful thing to say and it’s a wrong thing to say.”

The Fianna Fáil leader said two Nato members, Germany and France, had done “everything they could to persuade Putin not to launch that war”.

Mr Martin said Russia had been the only country that had hinted or implied “the use of nuclear weapons in the context of this war”.

The Tánaiste added that Ireland didn’t have “any blind spot” about nuclear weaponry despite claims from Mr Boyd Barrett.

Mr Martin said all the Government had decided was “to help to train some Ukrainians in respect of their capability in military combat, in terms of bomb disposal, and in terms of other areas of that kind”.

“It is not too great an ask for this country to make, and it does not threaten our neutrality in any shape or form, which is defined by non military alliance,” he said. “We are not members of Nato, we have no intentions or any immediate plans whatsoever to join Nato.”

The Tánaiste said Russia had used cluster munitions and noted the “extraordinary damage” they could cause after an attack.

“When children go out to play and get amputated because of picking up something that doesn’t look like a bomb but is a bomb, and you’re saying [deputy Boyd Barrett] we shouldn’t help to train people to prevent that terrible impact on civilians.”

Earlier, a minute’s silence was held in the Dáil to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Ireland Gerasko Larysa was present in the chamber as well as members of the international diplomatic corps.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl said as the Dáil marked the first anniversary of Russia’s “unlawful and brutal war, we remember and stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine”.

“We acknowledge the generosity of the Irish people and their kindness and welcoming spirit in having almost 77,000 Ukrainian displaced people in our country at this present time,” he told the Dáil.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl said last week he had visited the memorial in Hiroshima, Japan, for the victims of the atomic bomb in 1945 and laid a wreath at the cenotaph there on behalf of the 160 members of the Dáil.

He said 78 years after the atomic bomb was dropped, “we are witnessing a new evil with the war in Ukraine”.

“For the past year a sovereign democratic state, a member of our European family has been the victim of unspeakable acts of brutality perpetrated by Russia and its proxy forces,” he said.

“Just as innocent men, women and children were slaughtered in Hiroshima, innocent men, women and children are being indiscriminately killed in Ukraine by missiles and drones. We think of the immense human suffering with casualties in the hundreds of thousands and millions of innocent people displaced,” Mr Ó Fearghaíl said.

“Ireland is a militarily neutral country, but we will never be politically neutral where there is such a flagrant disregard for international law, to equivocate in the face of evil is to condone it, to stand idly by is to abandon innocent people to terror, and death.”

Mr Ó Fearghaíl added he was conscious that as he was speaking there are “parliamentarians in another House, the Russian Duma”.

“Four hundred and fifty of them [Russian politicians] who are in a position to exert influence in relation to the war in Ukraine and I urge them to find some courage, because amongst their ranks, there must be some members with courage and integrity and some sense of morality and ask them to speak out and name the reality of what has been done, ostensibly in the name of the Russian people,” he said.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said the Government could make the housing crisis “much worse” by extending the current eviction ban.

Mr Martin said he didn’t think if the ban was to be extended, that it could be done only in the “short-term”.

The Tánaiste was responding to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy during Leaders’ Question in the Dáil on Thursday, who said the eviction ban was due to expire at the end of March and people were arriving at local constituency offices “in a panic”.

“The first thing you do in a crisis is not make that crisis worse,” she said. “There’s a very real fear that that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

“We can all see it every week in our constituency offices; housing and homelessness and the prospect of homelessness is the number one issue.”

Ms Murphy said the ban on evictions had “postponed the inevitable for many” but that “the cliff edge is getting ever near”.

The Kildare North TD said in many ways the State had gotten to the stage where “outrage has disappeared and homelessness has almost become normalised”.

The Social Democrats TD added that if the ban was lifted “the floodgates on homelessness would really be opened”.

“What is a trickle would now become a torrent,” she said.

In response, Mr Martin said the Government was considering the issue, “not just from a legal perspective, but from a policy perspective also”.

“You’ve connected this to homelessness correctly, but the broader picture is supply of housing and supply units ... The fundamental policy issue we have to consider is if we extend it, and I don’t think you could extend it for a short-term, because we need to be honest with the market, we need to be honest with those who were renting as well, what would the impact of that be on supply, would it make it worse?

“Politically, the simple sort of catch cry is extend the ban ... and then worry about the consequences later or indeed the consequences will be the Government’s problem and the Government’s fault.”

The Fianna Fáil leader said policy research had indicated that “you risk reducing supply and you risk increasing rents as a consequence of reducing supply and you make matters worse”.

Mr Martin said recent data also showed that 21,000 home sales last year involved landlords selling their property, while just 7,500 properties were bought by landlords.

“That means a net loss of 13,500 to the rental stock, you’ve got to ask yourself the question, why are smaller landlords leaving the market in droves?”

He added that there were hundreds of people returning back to Ireland from abroad, some who were working on behalf of the State, who needed to get back into their homes.