{"id":503981,"date":"2026-06-17T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503981\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:06:09","slug":"big-implications-for-ireland-if-alumina-exports-linked-to-russian-arms-minister-warns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503981\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Big implications\u2019 for Ireland if alumina exports linked to Russian arms, Minister warns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There will be big consequences for the electricity grid if products being exported by Aughinish Alumina<\/a> to Russia<\/a> are found to be used by Russia\u2019s military complex, the Minister for Enterprise has warned.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the D\u00e1\u00edl, Peter Burke<\/a> warned there would be \u201cbig implications\u201d for some 1,000 jobs and for European security if an \u201cinvestigation\u201d by his department into the smelting plant confirmed its alumina was being turned by Russia into weapons for use in its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cAction will have to be taken\u201d if this is the case and \u201cthere are no easy answers\u201d, said Burke. <\/p>\n

He said he hoped to have the inquiry results \u201cvery shortly\u201d. <\/p>\n

A \u201clot of meetings are going on this week\u201d, he added. It will be a \u201cquick investigation\u201d and \u201cwon\u2019t be going on months or years\u201d.<\/p>\n

His department hoped to ascertain \u201cwhether the supply chain is concealed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burke noted that 200,000 homes and the port of Foynes are powered by the Co Limerick plant.<\/p>\n

The Government instigated the inquiry after The Irish Times reported figures, obtained from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), showing 83 per cent of alumina exports from Ireland (200,619 tonnes) went to Russia in the first three months of 2026, while 0.6 per cent went to the EU.<\/p>\n

Ministers later disputed the CSO figures, stating that Aughinish had informed the department that 45 per cent of exports went to Russia.<\/p>\n

In the D\u00e1il on Tuesday night, Burke insisted the CSO \u201cis the gold standard and I never implied it was incorrect in any way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe management of Aughinish Alumina had furnished incorrect information to the CSO and they were working with the CSO to rectify\u201d this.<\/p>\n

The Minister has previously said his department was doing a \u201cdeep dive\u201d to ensure it was not the case that Aughinish was exporting alumina that was being turned into weapons. The findings would be shared with the European Commission, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be clear, if there are products being exported to Russia that are being used in the Russian military complex, action will have to be taken. And there are no easy answers to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, an Irish Times investigation carried out in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed Aughinish Alumina is shipping vast amounts of alumina to smelters in Russia, where the raw material is used to make aluminium later supplied to dozens of Russian arms manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Last week The Irish Times also revealed minutes of a meeting<\/a> between EU officials and company representatives in which the firm outlined how the plant produced 1.8 million tonnes of alumina each year, \u201chalf sold to EU-based customers and half to Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in TD Pa Daly said the Government has been \u201cso slow to conduct an investigation, and the Ukrainian embassy has expressed a serious concern about the continued sales to Russia\u201d for the production of weapons, including ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles and Shahid drones, that are being used against Ukrainian cities every week.<\/p>\n

He added \u201ceven if it was an error that stated 80 per cent of exports\u201d went to Russia in 2025 and the true figure was 45 per cent, \u201cthat\u2019s still unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister said, however, \u201cwe need to ascertain where that 45 per cent is going\u201d because there were \u201cmany aspects\u201d to alumina\u2019s use in \u201cevery country\u201d, including for medical devices, the food processing and automotive sectors.<\/p>\n

The EU is also a \u201cvery significant importer\u201d of alumina. Denying a delay in the investigation, he insisted once The Irish Times report was published \u201cwe immediately opened an investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The department was in contact with the Swedish and Ukrainian authorities and were updating the European Commission weekly on the matter, Burke said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be big consequences for the electricity grid if products being exported by Aughinish Alumina to Russia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[163884,61,60,1396,43,12361,3589],"class_list":["post-503981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aughinish-alumina","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-news","tag-peter-burke","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503981","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=503981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}