Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said he has not been “involved in any conversations” about the State nationalising Aughinish Alumina, in the event of sanctions cutting off its exports to Russia.
Speaking on Thursday, Harris said Ireland’s position supporting Ukraine in resisting Russia’s “despicable” invasion was clear.
It was obvious that economic sanctions were the best way to put “maximum” pressure” on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, he said.
The Government did not want to be seen to “cherry pick” its approach to EU sanctions aimed at limiting Putin’s ability to wage war.
The Government opened an investigation into Aughinish Alumina, based in the Shannon estuary, following disclosures in The Irish Times that it was exporting vast amounts of alumina, the raw material for aluminium, which ends up in a supply chain that supplies Russia’s military industry.
That Department of Enterprise investigation into Aughinish Alumina was “nearing completion”, Harris said.
The Government would respond to its findings in tandem with the European Commission, the EU executive that proposes sanctions.
“I haven’t been involved in any conversations about nationalisation, that’s the truth,” he said when asked about Aughinish.
Previously Aughinish and alumina had been kept from successive rounds of economic sanctions targeting Russia and limiting its ability to continue its war in Ukraine, largely because the Irish plant also supplies significant amounts of the key material to European industry.
Speaking on Thursday morning to a group of Brussels-based journalists visiting Ireland at the start of its EU presidency, Harris said he didn’t see the problem as a “binary choice”.
“There has to be ways of addressing issues that enable crucial supply chains to continue into the European Union … but [ensure] there’s no indirect assistance in any means, to this regime in relation to the war,” the Fine Gael leader said.
Swedish authorities have determined that Rusal, the metals giant that owns the refinery in Co Limerick, remains under the control of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska, The Irish Times reported on Thursday.
The ruling from Skatteverket, Sweden’s tax authority, states that all of Rusal’s operation in Europe – a group that includes the Irish plant – should be subject to EU sanctions targeting Russia that would include the freezing of assets.
From the Shannon to Siberia: How alumina from a Limerick refinery enters Russia’s weapons supply chain
Aughinish Alumina in Co Limerick supplies vast amounts of raw materials to Russian aluminium smelters, according to an investigation by The Irish Times and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).Read the full investigation here.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to Russia produced in the plant.
Speaking during a visit to Dublin on Wednesday marking the beginning of Ireland’s EU presidency, Mr Zelenskiy warned that “every tonne” of vital raw material shipped to Russia was being used against the Ukrainian people in Moscow’s war.
He discussed the issue in a private meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and later appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to Russia produced in the Co Limerick facility.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan raised The Irish Times investigation into Aughinish Alumina and asked the Tánaiste “how much evidence do you need?”
“The foot dragging by the Irish Government is in sharp contrast to the Australians,” he said. “They didn’t need to conduct any investigation before they acted back in 2022.
“As soon as Putin invaded Ukraine, they banned all exports of alumina to Russia. They didn’t want to be complicit in the murder of men, women, and children in Ukraine. More than four years later, as exports of alumina from Ireland to Russia have at least doubled, your Government is still burying its head in the sand and refusing to do what everybody knows is needed. You need to ban the export of alumina to Russia.”
In response, the Tánaiste said “we do need to establish the facts in relation to Aughinish Alumina” and that Zelenskiy “understands that and appreciates the work that is being carried out”.
Harris said the Government’s investigation was “nearing finalisation” and it was “establishing the facts”.
“We have received information from a variety of sources, including the Ukrainian government. We’re plugged in with the European Commission. That information is now being stress tested. I expect it to come to a conclusion very shortly,” he said.
“We’ll keep the European Commission fully briefed, and ultimately it will be the European Commission, not the Irish Government, that will decide whether to propose sanctions or not to propose sanctions on a company or indeed any individual.”