Rose Conway-Walsh Questions G20 Outcomes on Gender-Based Violence

Firstly, I want to welcome Margaret Loftus to the Public Gallery. You'll know she's a courageous and brave former Gardaí, a survivor of horrific domestic violence whose traumatic experience in seeking justice highlights the urgent need for systemic legislative reform in this country. And I want to ask you about the nature and substance of your engagements at the G20 Summit, specifically in relation to gender-based violence, domestic violence. Were these issues discussed at leader or ministerial level? Can you report on any progress made, commitments secured or concrete arrangements reached as a result of these discussions? Can you share how Ireland's position and lived experience of survivors like Margaret were represented? Finally, can you outline how any outcomes from the G20 will translate into tangible protections, accountability and access to justice for victims and survivors here in Ireland? Because it beggars the question, how can we ever adopt a zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence here when we have a judicial system and a Gardaí-Chicona who don't have adequate checks and balances to ensure people like Margaret don't go through the same thing? Well, first of all, I want to thank all the deputies for raising these issues. In the first instance, I would make the point that this was the first time ever that Ireland was invited to be a participant at the G20. It's kind of interesting that some people are questioning whether I should attend or not. First time ever at the G20. We have a strong development and pro-development agenda in Ireland through our development aid programme across different government departments, but majorly delivered through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish Aid. And in that, we have a very strong section in provision, financial provision, but also policy around women and girls in conflict and around domestic abuse. And I appreciate it, Margaret Loftus is in the audience today, and I appreciate her bravery and courage in coming forward to tell her story so that we can continue to improve on our own legislation here, but also in terms of the transparency of our agencies and Gardaí and Defence Forces and so forth. But at the global level, I think what was interesting at the G20, and Deputy Nisha Karool did reference this in terms of diversification of trade, the need for global engagement. And I think we need to be clear, we do need to engage at a global level with as many countries as we possibly can. The world has dramatically changed from the time of apartheid in South Africa. It's a much more interdependent world today than it was back then. And I had some very good meetings with Cyril Ramaphosa. I've met him on quite a number of occasions. Now he's very fond of the time he spent in Ireland helping to decommission weapons. And he has the odd humour, or sorry, anecdote about where he had to go to find some of those weapons and verify their destruction and decommissioning and so on. But what was interesting in the declaration is that he did skilfully get an outcome, notwithstanding the fact that the U.S. weren't formally represented, but there were there negotiations in some respects, or other countries were as well. On the trade issue, I think the EU-India trade agreement is positive. I have to go through the details of it. But let's be clear, if you take the Canada, our European-Canada trade agreement, Irish trade has exponentially grown as a result of that ceded trade deal. Yet there's a lot of opposition in the House to it, which I find hard to comprehend, because a lot of Irish small to medium-sized companies have done very well in terms of exporting goods and services. A lot of our multinationals do well also in terms, which improves Irish jobs. And so India is an important market. I mean, it's huge. It's enormous. So this is a very historic agreement. And what, of course, it does is it counteracts the push towards more protectionism and a tariff-based approach, which the U.S. is initiating through its policies. So what Europe is endeavouring to do is create a counter-approach, approach, which is saying actually we can do trade deals with others and ease the trade between different blocks and different markets across the world. It's interesting that Canada is pivoting more to Europe now as a result of that change to global position also in terms of trade. In my visit to China, not only did we get the beef reopened, but it was interesting that the Chinese leadership were saying they acknowledge the interdependence of the world and they want smoother trading relationships with Europe, albeit there are issues on both sides there in terms of industrial resilience, strategic autonomy, and so forth. And so these are issues. But I think this is a significant agreement that the Commission have arrived at with the EU, the precise mechanisms for agreement on that. I'll get further clarity on you, as you know, there are various mechanisms by which trade deals or aspects of trade deals can be ratified. So if you take CETA, for example, it was a provisional agreement. We have yet to ratify it, but we are bringing legislation into the House to ratify it, notwithstanding the fact that it has entered provisionally and we've had tremendous growth. Very good document, by the way, Deputy and members of the House, which came from our Embassy, which they commissioned work on the impact of the CETA trade deal on Ireland and Canada's trade. And our Embassy has produced that, and it's a very good snapshot of the dramatic improvements. And I would see something similar in India. I remember back in the early 2000s, we took a trade mission to India to try and create a base for the first time, really, in a significant way. There were five ministers and the then Taoiseach at the time. The whole idea was to open up India. We did similar with China, and look what's happened with China. The trade has exponentially grown both ways, and we have a surplus with China. And likewise, I think there's lots of potential in Europe, India, and the impact on Ireland. And Deputy Morakou skilfully wove the G20 back to County Louth in respect of adaptation and mitigation measures. And it's a fair point in terms of when you attend these meetings, you see the enormity of the impact of climate on many African countries, both resulting in migration, resulting in economic disruption, and resulting in significant disruption of food production systems. So the whole area of mitigation and adaptation is something that we need to really focus on more urgently, I would argue, globally, and here in Ireland as well, Deputy. And on the specifics, I'll talk to the Minister in terms of the specifics issues that you raised. But if you look at the rainfall over the last while, like the weather is changing, climate is changing, the ground is saturated, and it's a serious issue. And it's after Storm Eowen, we did a fundamental review of certain areas, corridors, power corridors and so on like that, bringing in a new legislation to clarify powers of air grid and the ESB vis-à-vis landowners, and to have a comprehensive solution to that, generators for Irish water, generators for community hubs, and stronger resourcing of the community-based organizations underground to develop greater resilience underground, given the severity of the storms that have happened and are coming our way. And Storm Chandra is the latest manifestation of that and some very serious flooding resulting from it. In terms of the U.S. President did not turn up at the G20, although he did meet with President Ramaphosa earlier in the White House, and President Ramaphosa went to the White House. And, you know, I had good meetings with President Ramaphosa during our visit to South Africa. And what I would say is that, you know, there's a degree of self-confidence in the South African approach. I mean, if South Africa invited Ireland, which I think speaks volumes to the Irish position on the issues that you raised, Deputy Boyle Barrett, despite what gets said in the House here, South Africa were minded to invite Ireland because of the role we play globally. We're serious. Our officials attended about 13 meetings. Our ministers did as well. We took it very seriously. We engaged constructively and made sure that, you know, there's a whole range of issues like agriculture, anti-corruption, culture, development, digital economy, disaster risk reduction, Deputy Mayor, who our officials were, the Sherpas were working on that area, education, employment, empowerment of women, energy transitions, environment and climate sustainability, health, research and innovation, tourism and trade and investment. And there's a variety of workshops throughout the year. The debt burden on developing countries is probably the most critical issue that emerged at the G20 summit, which was raised by a lot of the African nations. And the G20 leaders' declaration acknowledges how debt vulnerabilities, along with other factors, can constrain countries' fiscal space, really undermines their ability to deal with poverty and inequality, and their capacity to invest in growth and development. I mean, interest payments alone on external debt, public debt, has more than doubled over the past decade for low-income countries. So it really hampers their capacity to deal with lifting people out of poverty and the need then for the multi-development banks to develop more liberal policies in respect of that. The commitment to the empowerment of women and girls was reaffirmed by the G20 summit and to urgently remove social and economic barriers to achieving gender equity. And then there's a whole range of other issues in terms of food security. On the Board of Peace, the European Union we met last week. Obviously, we have very significant concerns in terms of the broad remit. What Europe is interested in in Ireland is the application to Gaza and whether there's a role for the EU in respect of the second phase now of the peace process within Gaza. All of the hostages have now been released. There is a need, I spoke to the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority last week in Davos, and he said the most immediate need is shelter. Absolute urgent need in Gaza for shelter. He believes it is coming in, but it's coming in in a very haphazardly way in the sense that a lot of basic vital stuff like proteins and that not coming in to the degree that is necessary. So we need a more comprehensive approach. And I had a very brief meeting with Tom Fletcher and a number of Irish officials are doing everything they can to contribute and to help. And that's an area that we're very focused on in terms of our engagement with the US both at European and Irish level. Deputy Shane Moinan again raised the issue of the EU-India, and I think diversification is the key of markets and the opening up of new markets with a view to benefiting world trade more generally, but also our own company. We're a small exporting country. We export 90% of what we produce. So instinctively, trade deals are better for us in that scenario. Like you take drink products alone, whiskey and so on like that. I mean, the tariffs are enormous now. After a trade deal, they've come a way down. So that's very good news for producers of that kind. Obviously, we can go through it sector by sector later, but I think it will be significant. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Taoiseach. Thank you.