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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN will attend an online meeting with other European leaders this afternoon to discuss the war in Ukraine, during which he will press the case for Ukraine’s admission into the EU.
The meeting has been convened by President Emmanuel Macron of France and comes amid a major shift in US posture towards Russia and the war that is approaching its third anniversary.
“I will argue that an important way for the EU to help guarantee Ukraine’s future security is to accelerate the process of joining the EU,” Martin said.
“Ukraine is part of the European family and has already undertaken many of the reforms necessary for membership in the most difficult of circumstances.”
US and Russian diplomats held a meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh yesterday, where they discussed normalising relations and committed to appointing teams of negotiators to try and bring an end to the war. It was the first such meeting since the war began and no Ukrainian envoys were invited.
European leaders, the vast majority of whom support Ukraine in its effort to expel Russia’s devastating invasion, have been left scrambling by the Trump administrations’ about face on the war.
Macron already hastily convened a meeting of European leaders on Monday to discuss the developments, which, despite Trump’s election pledges to end the war and his policy towards Europe and Nato during his first term, appear to have caught the EU on the back foot.
Last night, US President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion three years ago. That invasion had been preceded by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Trump also piled pressure on Zelenskyy to hold an election, which has not taken place because Ukraine is currently under martial law, while also making a false claim about the Ukrainian president’s popularity.
Zelenskyy said today that Trump was living in “a disinformation space”.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, the Taoiseach welcomed the opportunity to exchange views with partners on the situation in Ukraine.
“In our discussions, we will consider how best we can continue to support Ukraine and how we can ensure a just, sustainable, and durable peace, in keeping with the principles of the UN Charter,” the Taoiseach said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
“As we approach the third anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion, Ireland remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and its people.”
Yesterday, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris asked Cabinet for approval of €50m to supply Ukraine with non-lethal military aid, outside of the EU’s funding mechanism, which has been obstructed by Hungary.
Harris was asked by reporters about the possibility of Irish soldiers being deployed to Ukraine, but said “we’re not at that point yet”.
Results are released in September! Norma Foley needs to resign, between this and the school bus fiasco she is abysmal at her job!
@John Long: it’s the junior cert , it really doesn’t matter
@Ciaran: The kids put the effort in. Should that be dismissed?
@Ciaran: except to the kids who did the exams
@John Long: Get over yourself, it’s the junior cert, an exam of no importance of any description.
@Ciaran: you seem to have the same attitude as the rest of the government. It really doesn’t matter!
@Justin Gillespie: No.
@Justin Gillespie: it is important as it’s basic requirement for apprenticeships.
@Justin Gillespie: I think it’s you that needs to get over yourself not every wants to go on to leaving cert so junior cert is very important to those that want to go for an apprenticeship instead.
@Bernard Mc Grath: you might be going over his head here. I doubt he even knows what apprenticeships are let alone their relation to the JC
@John Long: This is the SEC, not the DES. So, no matter what you think of Norma, this isn’t her fault.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Her position is minister of education!
We keep forgetting that exam fees are paid for a product that has not been delivered in time. Maybe the State Exam commission should refund for being in default of an undertaking.
@Irish big fellow: There has been no exam fees for the last three years nearly because of Covid
Clearly gave this zero priority. Money on offer vs hours and expertise expected not attracting numbers needed, payment for those that do the job takes months to come through. Corrections completed long ago and yet results delayed and delayed and delayed. Ball dropped.
Junior cert provides valuable experience for future state exams, it important the results are released in a prompt manner as people who decided to drop out and take up an apprenticeship need them as it is a requirement for apprenticeships.
I don’t think it can be overstated how completely worthless it is as a learning aid to receive exam results 5 and a half months after the exam.
Students will already be neck deep in a new curriculum by then and preparing for christmas tests on that. They won’t even remember what the questions were in an exam so long and will have already made subject choice or higher level decisions already.
The whole thing is just an insult to students. Forced to sit a state exam the state has seemingly little interest in correcting. It should be a resigning matter for the Education minister but it’s Ireland and we’re used to tolerating less.
Correct me if I’m wrong; Teachers are paid 12 months of the year, yet are paid extra for correcting papers. How is it not a mandatory part of the job??
@El Grogan: Do you want LC exams to be marked by people who don’t want to mark it and who don’t care? What do you do with those, who make a pig’s ear if it? Do you take them off the job and pay them less? So the people who remain marking thw state exams get paid more? Oh, wait…………………..
@El Grogan: I had a similar conversation regarding the leaving cert results. From my understanding of what I got in reply, normal teachers don’t mark state exams, professional exam markers do. My point at the time was that I found this strange as teachers are paid over the marking period yet this is not part of their job. In France, for example, it is. Not all teachers are needed but each teacher chosen, gets a mail detailing what marking centre they are required to attend to mark papers. Exams end in early July and results are published near the end of July, despite the student population being much larger.
@David Stapleton: You can efficiently and accurately mark 25 exams per day. At 5 days a week over 3 weeks that is about 350+ exams per corrector.
Best of luck to all
The results are typically released mid September
I think the junior cert is pointless unless the person wants to leave school afterwards and get an apprenticeship. It’s alot of unnecessary pressure to put on a teenager if they go to do their leaving certificate because when you get that then the junior cert is nothing
@Anthony Hilton: look up the reason
I remember my first day in 4th year. “The junior cert meant sod all lads….the leaving cert will be 10 times as hard and you’ll have less time to learn it all as this is a doss year”
Where did all the examiners go?! 1 in 3 disappeared?
Was it down to the post-covid travel bottleneck or something else?
@Rachel Ray: the problem at the moment comes from two sources: dumbing down of educational standards, accompanied by students’ sense of entitlement. Who would want to involve themselves in a situation where everybody demands that they do well and if they don’t, go for rechecks. A neighbour of mine is a teacher and according to her the economic imperative to get as many people through education right up to college standard has created chaos since she is caught between retaining her own integrity re marking and giving in to economics that insist everybody must do well and then pay for the next stage of their education
@Rachel Ray: They made the perfectly rational decision that time with their families was more important than money, maybe?
have your say