The “significant role” of the Co Limerick Aughinish Alumina plant in civilian supply chains across the EU has to be taken into account when sanctions are considered against Russia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.
Helen McEntee told the Dáil a 20th package of sanctions against Russia is being worked on and while it had been unsuccessful at the most recent EU Council meeting, she hoped “we will be able to make progress”.
Successive Irish governments have successfully lobbied the EU and US to make Russian-owned Aughinish Alumina exempt from sanctions over the past 12 years. But following the confirmation of its links to Russia’s weapons industry, Belgian minister for foreign affairs Maxime Prévot said his country would call for “loopholes” in the sanctions regime to be closed.
An Irish Times investigation earlier this week revealed the links between the plant’s production of alumina and dozens of Russian weapons manufacturers. Alumina is exported to smelters in Russia to be turned into aluminium which is then sold to a trading company, ASK, that supplies dozens of Russian arms manufacturers.
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After the investigation was published, Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed concern about the findings and pledged to examine the issue and “try to get into the background to it”. But he stressed Aughinish Alumina “is a very significant employer in the midwest and it supports hundreds of jobs directly and indirectly”.
McEntee said Ireland has consistently supported “expansive and hard-hitting” sanctions “in response to Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine”, which has been continuing for more than four years.
The issue was raised by Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, who highlighted the Limerick plant’s involvement with Russia when he asked if the State would support sanctions sought by Ukraine against Rosatom, the Russian atomic agency. He said it was “remarkable” the agency had not been sanctioned after four years of war “given the centrality of atomic energy to the Russian economy and the Russian war effort”.
The Cork South-Central TD pointed to the Russian smelters and Aughinish being owned by Rusal, “a company with deep connections to the Kremlin and Moscow’s arms industry”.
Some 68 per cent of the Limerick plant’s output is exported to Russia, up from 23 per cent in 2020.
“It is important, when we are considering how to ensure sanctions are effective, that issues like this are taken into account,” he said.
The Minister told him Aughinish Alumina has a “significant role in supply chains across Europe”. She said there are “many similar pieces of infrastructure that have implications beyond the sanctions themselves for European member states”.
“All of these have to be taken into consideration when any sanctions are being put forward.”
She said “there wasn’t unanimity when it came to this particular plant. I am clear on that, but we are focused on the 20th package” of sanctions.
The Minister added that Ireland had supported sanctions being imposed on Rosatom.
“However, there wasn’t unanimity. My understanding is that will not change.”
