TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said it’s “possible” that Irish Defence Force personnel would be sent to the Ukrainian border to help with the escalating humanitarian crisis as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Taoiseach was speaking to reporters in Versailles ahead of an informal two-day summit of the European Council, of which France holds the presidency of until June.

The summit is to be dominated by discussions on Ukraine, the ongoing humanitarian crisis as over a million Ukrainians flee their country, the issue of further sanctions and how to grapple with hikes in energy costs.

When asked would there be any circumstances in which Irish Defence Forces personnel would go to areas around the Ukrainian border to help with humanitarian aid, the Taoiseach said “that’s always possible”.

“We have the triple-lock [system] which basically means that Government approval [and Dáil approval], along with a UN resolution, then enables Irish troops to serve in peacekeeping or peace enforcement.” 

He cited the Lebanon as such areas where Irish troops serve for peacekeeping purposes.

But to get UN authorisation, all five permanent members of its Security Council need to agree – that includes China and Russia, as well as France, Britain and the US.

When asked how Ireland would take part in any discussions on whether to send further military weapons to Ukraine given our neutral military stance, the Taoiseach said that “we have made our contribution”.

“We took a constructive abstention approach on that, in terms of deployment of the European Peace Facility, which has already allowed €450 million to be spent in terms of Europe sending lethal weapons.

“We have made our full contribution, and our contribution is in that part of the deployment which is for non-lethal.

“And that was something we had worked on prior to the establishment of the peace facility within the European Union to facilitate countries with specific characteristics such as ours in terms of neutrality and we wouldn’t prevent others and prevent the Union as a bloc from helping citizens in a situation like this to defend themselves.”

The Taoiseach, who was wearing a blue and yellow ribbon, said that the summit would be emotional, as Ukraine enters its third week of fighting the Russian invasion. 

“It will be emotional in the sense that all prime ministers are very well aware of the enormous human impact of this war on the people.

In Ireland and elsewhere, there’s huge solidarity with the Ukrainian people. There’s also huge anger at the atrocities that have been visited on people in their towns, in their cities. It’s beyond belief that such atrocities are occurring.

“We pay tribute to the journalists of the world who are bringing those photographs to us, risking their lives to get in behind the scenes.

“I pay tribute to the President of France Emmanuel Macron for keeping the channels of communication open with Vladimir Putin to get this war ended, and that’s the most important, to get the war ended.”

It’s been reported that the EU could impose another round of sanctions against Russia, already the most sanctioned country in the world, over its invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago.

This will not be decided at this summit, the Taoiseach said, as it is an informal summit of leaders – but added that it will be discussed. 

“Sanctions will be kept under constant review, again. The interaction between the European Union, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, my basic principle is that we should have unity of purpose on this, and we should move in unison.

“Because that’s the greatest impact and has the greatest impact in terms of pressure on Russia. But again, we will believe there will be some discussion of that today.”