{"id":439796,"date":"2026-05-09T04:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439796\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T04:43:11","slug":"ireland-using-foreign-security-for-eu-presidency-not-controversial-says-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439796\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland using foreign security for EU Presidency ‘not controversial’, says Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland will assume the presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1 which will see over 30,000 visitors over six months\"Minister<\/p>\n

Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne TD (Image: Photo by Seb Daly\/Sportsfile *** NO REPRODUCTION FEE ***)<\/p>\n

Ireland outsourcing security from other countries for the duration of its EU Presidency \u201cisn\u2019t controversial\u201d, Junior Minister Thomas Byrne has said.<\/p>\n

On July 1, Ireland will assume the presidency of the Council of the EU for six months, which will see over 30,000 visitors including VIPs landing into the island. There have been concerns cited over the level of security needed for the undertaking, with garda\u00ed previously saying they would refuse to police it if long-running disputes over pay weren\u2019t resolved.<\/p>\n

Minister Byrne, who has responsibility for European Affairs, said he wouldn\u2019t \u201creject\u201d Ireland utilising security from other countries for the EU Presidency. He said: \u201cThose types of arrangements are not controversial throughout the European Union<\/a> so I certainly wouldn\u2019t reject them but it\u2019s a matter for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe garda\u00ed are in charge of security and they will make whatever arrangements they deem appropriate and they are working really hard. Fundamentally it is their job how they are going to do it and I am absolutely confident that they are going to do this well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns about Ireland\u2019s ability to allow safe visits of dozens of EU leaders over the six months rose after unidentified drones were spotted when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> landed at Dublin Airport last November.<\/p>\n

Asked if he is concerned about this happening again, Minister Byrne said: \u201cWe had a safe visit and we will make sure this is a safe presidency.\u201d The Junior Minister was speaking at a Europe Day reception in Dublin on Friday, where he said he has \u201cno doubt\u201d the EU will meet US President Donald Trump\u2019s July 4 tariff deadline.<\/p>\n

This comes as the US President said on Thursday that goods from the EU would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year\u2019s trade framework by July 4. It appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU vehicles would face a higher 25% tariff starting this week.<\/p>\n

While the announcement came after what he said was a \u201cgreat call\u201d with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, President Trump seemed displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalise the trade arrangement reached last year.<\/p>\n

He wrote on social media: \u201cA promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to zero. I agreed to give her until our Country\u2019s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Minister Byrne said \u201ca deal is a deal\u201d and the EU\u2019s process is likely to be concluded \u201cwell before\u201d President Trump\u2019s deadline. He added: \u201cWork is ongoing, even this week, between the European Parliament and the member states to tie up the loose ends on that agreement from a European side, and that work will be completed. There\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he trusts President Trump to keep the agreement, the Fianna F\u00e1il TD said: \u201cThe United States will keep the deal with the European Union, we\u2019ve seen that. We don\u2019t react to every single utterance from the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an agreement done, and it\u2019s an agreement that I think will work for both sides, particularly to have the certainty that businesses need.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAt the end of the day, the European Union is a democracy, and this agreement has to be put through the democratic process on the EU side, and that\u2019s all that\u2019s happening at the moment. And I think actually we concluded that well before the July 4th deadline that President Trump has mentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland will assume the presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1 which will see over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5148,191599,61,60,43,9688],"class_list":["post-439796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-european-union","tag-global-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}