Government urged to kickstart scheme to buy alumina destined for Russia

Enterprise minister said review of Aughinish Alumina had established 'no adverse findings' that linked exports of alumina produced at the Limerick plant to Russian weapon manufacturers

Aughinish Alumina, Shannon Estuary, Co Limerick. File picture

The Government has been called on to kickstart a scheme to buy alumina destined for Russia, amid the fallout from a report into Aughinish Alumina in Limerick.

Sinn Féin pressed the Government to buy up alumina and sell it on to EU markets, rather than permitting its export to Russia.

In Kyiv on Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed he briefed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the review, saying it was inconclusive.

“The investigation has not found concrete or definitive evidence linking the alumina to a weapons manufacturer in Russia,” Mr Martin said.

“That said, neither has it found definitive evidence that alumina may not be going to weapons manufacturers. So, it's difficult.”

On Friday, enterprise minister Peter Burke said the review had established “no adverse findings” that linked exports of alumina produced at the Limerick plant to Russian weapon manufacturers.

It followed a report in The Irish Times, which detailed how Aughinish Alumina was exporting massive amounts of alumina to Russia, which was then smelted down and used to make arms.

"The department has also sought information from other bodies within and external to the State and has engaged with the company itself in the conduct of this review," Mr Burke said.

"The department has engaged with other jurisdictions including Sweden and Ukraine and conducted its own research, and no evidence corroborating the media assertions could be found."

He confirmed the Government would share the report with the European Commission, with further decisions on sanctions to be made at EU level.

Sinn Féin’s foreign affairs spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said he has written to Mr Burke calling for the Government to work with the European Commission on an alumina purchase scheme.

He said this would work by Ireland buying up alumina due to be exported to Russia, backed by the European Commission, with the State then selling on the raw material to export markets in Europe.

Mr Ó Laoghaire said it is not down to workers at the plant to make decisions about exports, adding the Government is responsible for protecting jobs at the plant.

“No worker in Limerick should ever be placed in the impossible position of producing a product in good faith that then transpires to be part of a chain supplying materials that fuel Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, a war that continues to claim the lives of innocent civilians every day,” he said.

Finance spokesperson for the Social Democrats, Cian O’Callaghan, described the report as being a “classic fudge”.

“The contention that stuff [alumina] from Ireland is being hived off is not credible,” Mr O’Callaghan said, saying it all ends up in Russian smelters and becomes aluminium.

Mr O’Callaghan said there is a strong case to cut off all exports of alumina to Russia and instead find alternative export markets in the EU.

Speaking on Friday, environment minister Darragh O’Brien said the commission would now assess the report.

Asked about Mr Zelenskyy’s call for domestic Irish sanctions on alumina, Mr O’Brien said all previous sanctions packages have been done at an EU-wide level.

“That’s the way it absolutely should be,” Mr O’Brien added.