The Government will “pursue” the issue of Irish components ending up in Russian drones, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
Speaking in the Dáil, Martin told Labour leader Ivana Bacik “circumvention of sanctions has been a feature of the war and Europe has tried everything it possibly can” to deal with this.
He said Irishman David O’Sullivan, former secretary general of the European Commission and currently EU chief sanctions envoy has been trying to deal with “circumvention of sanctions across the board”.
Bacik highlighted “alarming revelations” in The Irish Times investigation about components made in Ireland by two Irish companies ending up in drones “that are devastating Ukraine this winter”.
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Some 682 civilians were killed last year with these weapons.
“Swarms of drones are leaving millions of Ukrainians without heat, power or water,” Bacik said.
She asked what the Government was going to do to ensure such components did not end up in Russian weapons.
The Taoiseach said he had read the report and there was no suggestion the companies engaged in anything illegal “but we will pursue this and we will follow this through and it is concerning”.
“But obviously, the circumvention has been a feature in many areas of the war, in many aspects of supplies to Russia,” he added.
The Irish Times revealed electronic components from Irish companies are being shipped to Russia in vast quantities where they are often fitted to “kamikaze drones” for use against Ukrainian civilian targets.
This is despite EU export bans introduced following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, designed to shut off the supply of such technology to Russia.
In a 15-month period, beginning in January 2024, just under 10 tonnes of components from Irish companies reached Russia. All but 4 per cent consisted of components subject to EU export bans, an analysis of trade data showed.
None of the parts were shipped directly from the Irish companies, which are not accused of any wrongdoing. Instead they came from a variety of wholesale and export companies, mostly based in China.
In a statement, the EU chief sanctions envoy said: “Tackling circumvention of sanctions is a key priority for the EU and in recent sanctions packages the EU has added tools supporting Member States to fight circumvention via third countries.”
This includes efforts to tackle the issue in member states “as these tools also support the due diligence and compliance efforts of EU operators,” he said.
The European Commission “stands ready to reinforce the sanctions where possible loopholes are identified and to prevent the undermining of our measures”.
The envoy warned: “We will not ignore cases of our sanctions being systematically circumvented through the jurisdictions of third countries, by re-exporting sanctioned EU goods to Russia.”
He said there has been particular focus on “the re-exports of ‘common high priority’ items and ‘economically critical goods’. These goods directly allow Russia to pursue its military aggression against Ukraine and its ability to wage war”.
O’Sullivan said EU sanctions regulations “lay down on EU operators an obligation of result regarding compliance”.
“It is for each operator to conduct its own due diligence and risk management approach in order to make sure they comply with the relevant prohibitions,” he said.
“Under the sanctions legislation it is also prohibited to participate, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is to circumvent the measures.
“We are continuously monitoring the application and enforcement of EU sanctions and stand ready to take appropriate measures to counter sanctions circumvention to stem the supply of sensitive items to Russia,” he said.
