Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has said she is concerned by the path the United States is taking after president Donald Trump announced the country’s withdrawal from more than 60 international agreements, alliances and co-operative agencies.
Ms McEntee described the behaviour of the US as “challenging” and said Ireland has a duty to call it out.
“When you’re friends with another nation, you have to be honest with your friends and say we’re concerned with what they’re doing; we’re concerned with the path they’re taking,” she said.
“Whether it’s climate change, whether it’s the most recent developments in Venezuela, whether it’s the type of language that’s being used that’s causing huge concern across the globe.
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“Where we see challenging behaviour, we have to call it out, and unfortunately there’s been a lot of that from the US.”
Ms McEntee said, however, that Ireland and the rest of the world need to maintain strong relations with the US. She said she just spent a day in Paris at talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and the US was a big part of that.
“We really do need to work with them. We need to engage with them, and that’s going to be a priority for me as Minister for Foreign Affairs to be as engaged with my US colleagues, not just on issues of trade but on all of the issues that matter to us at home here as well.
“We need to try and change their mind in some of those instances because the structures that have been developed for the right reasons to keep world order, to keep world peace, to keep countries connected large and small – they matter and they matter so much to a country like Ireland.
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“So we will always use our voice, however small it might seem.
“We will always use our voice to advocate for those international agencies, to advocate for countries to work together, to advocate for a multilateral, rules-based system, and I think our voice is strong on that.”
Minister for Arts and Sports Patrick O’Donovan echoed that view.
“One thing that is certain is that since the end of the second World War [is that] multilateralism has served the world really well.
“The best example of it, as the late John Bruton said, is that the single greatest project by humankind to deliver peace is the European Union. This continent knows all too well what happens in the absence of multilateralism, and we’re better served by sitting down together than by acting unilaterally.”
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The Ministers were speaking as they visited the Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
Their visits came just after the Government announced that Ireland would vote against the Mercosur trade deal.
Ms McEntee said the decision was not an easy one.
“This is obviously a very difficult decision to make. We are an open economy, a trading economy, and we always have been,” she said.
“But we have to look at every element of any trade deal or any negotiation and for us, our farming industry, it’s our most important sector here, our most important indigenous industry. The implications for this are not clear.”
Mr O’Donovan said he also has problems with Mercosur, although he said the State would have to work within its regulations now.
“The world would be very boring if we all agreed on everything. It’s important that as a country we’re prepared to articulate our own opinion while also accepting an EU decision,” he said.
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Ms McEntee also expressed concerns about Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok, being used to digitally undress people for nude and explicit images to be distributed on X.
She said “Coco’s Law”, the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, was the first piece of legislation she enacted as minister for justice. That law, she said, is to prevent the sharing of intimate images or harmful communications.
“The very fact that this imagery could now be created by an app that’s made available to young people is appalling,” she said.
“We need to be able to engage with the online companies to be clear that this won’t be tolerated. They do engage but we need them to be engaging with their ears opening and hearing what we’re say and hearing our concerns,” she said.
