Coveney: No plans to expel Russian ambassador

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Finance Minister Pascal Donohoe  speaking at the Fine Gael ard fheis at the Technical University of Shannon, Athlone on Saturday. Picture:  Dan Linehan

There are no plans to expel the Russian ambassador to Ireland, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.

Speaking at the Fine Gael ard fheis in Athlone on Saturday morning, Mr Coveney said Ireland would not make any "kneejerk reactions" to Russia's banning of 52 Irish politicians.

He said that Ireland would "call out" Russia's invasion of Ukraine by keeping diplomatic channels open. Ireland has already asked four members of the Russian embassy to leave, but Mr Coveney would not speculate on whether this would happen again. He said that asking Yuriy Filatov to leave Ireland would not "achieve a lot".

"My view on this, since the onset of this war, was that Ireland should take a very strong position," said Mr Coveney. 

"We should not be neutral. We should call out Russia for the illegality of what they're doing, the brutality of what they're doing. And we have been doing that on all platforms that we can, whether it's in the Security Council or whether it's in the EU, but also on a bilateral basis with Russia. 

"And if you are going to have those blunt conversations in terms of sending messages, when you disagree with the country, then you have to have diplomatic channels open in my view. Wars end because people talk to each other."

Mr Coveney said he did not believe in a change to Ireland's 'triple lock' neutrality.

"I don't regard a move away from the triple lock as a radical change. I would regard that as a sensible change, recognising the limitations of the triple lock in terms of the ability of the Irish parliament and the Irish Government to make a decision to be part of the peace peacekeeping operation.

"Don't forget one of the elements of the triple lock is that we are required to have a UN mandate that effectively means that countries like Russia can veto what Ireland chooses to do. Is that neutrality?

"I think the triple lock has served as well, by the way. And I think it has been a reassurance to people to have a UN mandate to have a government decision and to have a parliament. 

"Supporting that decision has made sense, I think, from a reassurance perspective, but I think I think global politics has changed in the last year. 

"And I think a lot of Irish people will be very uncomfortable with the fact that somebody making a decision in the Kremlin to frustrate a UN mandate would essentially be able to veto whether I can participate in a peacekeeping mission or a conflict management situation, or a peace intervention in any part of the world. 

"That's not a radical change. It is a response to a changing political environment globally."