Taoiseach: Militarily neutral Ireland will always call out evil

The Taoiseach also said there needs to be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

'We're reminded all too often and nearly on a daily basis now of the indiscriminate terrorist attacks being launched by Russia on civilians,' Mr Harris said at a bilateral meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Rzeszow, Poland. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Ireland is never neutral when it comes to standing up to evil, the Taoiseach has said following a visit to Ukraine.

Simon Harris said that although Ireland “is militarily neutral and always will be”, it will also always call out evil and show solidarity at a European level against the “horrific, brutal aggression that we're seeing from Russia”.

“We're reminded all too often and nearly on a daily basis now of the indiscriminate terrorist attacks being launched by Russia on civilians,” Mr Harris said at a bilateral meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Rzeszow, Poland.

“We saw (on Wednesday) the murder of three beautiful young girls and their mother in the early hours of the morning.” 

Deadly airstrikes on Lviv in western Ukraine killed seven people early on Wednesday morning, including a mother and her three daughters, just hours after the Taoiseach travelled through the city on his way to Kyiv.

While in Kyiv, the Taoiseach visited the Children’s Rights Protection Centre and met a family there who fled Russian-occupied Ukraine. He also visited a couple whose home was destroyed by Russian attacks and who are now living in a modular home provided by Irish humanitarian funding and the UNHCR.

“It's really important to fully understand when you look into the eyes of a seven-year-old boy in a centre for child protection who has been separated from his father and has had to flee occupied territory with his mother and his sisters.

Taoiseach Simon Harris after holding a bilateral meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Rzeszow, Poland on Thursday. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“These are not experiences that children can be in, and that is the reality for far too many children in Ukraine today."

People in Ukraine "are having to compress normal daily life into a very brief period each day" while they have electricity due to frequent blackouts.

Ireland has provided €340m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine and this week pledged an additional €36m, Mr Harris said. Some 109,000 Ukrainians have also sought shelter from the war in Ireland since Russia’s invasion.

On Wednesday, Ireland signed an agreement with Ukraine “to show that we will continue to stand with them and be there for as long as it takes". But the best security and peace guarantee for Ukraine and for Europe is for Ukraine to become a member of the European Union, he said.

The Taoiseach also discussed the Middle East with Mr Tusk in Poland.

“The violence needs to end,” he said. "There needs to be an immediate ceasefire. We cannot have different standards in terms of how we treat different conflicts.” 

Ireland and Poland, though geographically distant, are close “in our hearts and minds,” Mr Harris said. Some 100,000 Poles now live in Ireland, he said.

Taoiseach Simon Harris (left) with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Rzeszow, Poland. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“I have found the Polish people who come to Ireland, their work ethic, their approach, their cultural view, to be so similar to those of Irish people.” 

The trading relationship between the two countries is now worth about €7.4bn each year. “You're consuming quite a lot of our whiskey... not you personally,” he said to Mr Tusk.

He thanked Mr Tusk for leading the European Council “at a most difficult time” for Ireland and the European Union as “the unprecedented challenges posed by Brexit” were navigated.

Taoiseach Simon Harris (left) told Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (right) in Rzeszow, Poland, on Thursday 'There needs to be an immediate ceasefire' in Gaza. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“Your friendship, your solidarity but also your skill really helped manage that very difficult process and for that I and the people of Ireland and the government of Ireland will always be grateful and will always consider you a true friend.”

Collaboration between European leaders was hugely important to “tease out and work through some of the big issues” faced by Europe like migration, Mr Harris said.

Work on the economic agenda within the EU was also important to ensure that the single market works for everybody, including small businesses and farmers, Mr Harris said.

Strengthening EU business should empower officials, rather than swamping people in bureaucracy with “meetings about where to place the comma in a document”, he said.