{"id":532328,"date":"2026-07-04T06:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532328\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:52:10","slug":"how-aughinish-overshadowed-irelands-presidency-fanfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532328\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aughinish overshadowed Ireland’s Presidency fanfare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fanfare and nostalgia that washed over Ireland’s EU presidency launch in Dublin Castle on Wednesday was given a sudden jolt by Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n

President Zelensky had been invited to the launch, making the arduous journey from Kyiv to Dublin to hear – yet again – affirmations of Ireland\u2019s and the EU\u2019s unwavering support.<\/p>\n

After an emotional rendition of the Ukrainian anthem before scores of assembled dignitaries in the upper courtyard of Dublin Castle, Mr Zelensky told a joint news conference with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin that he had just received intelligence of a massive impending attack by Russia.<\/p>\n

“Immediately after our press conference,” he told reporters, “I will be very quickly returning to Ukraine, and today I will ask our people to be especially careful to protect themselves, their families, and their children.”<\/p>\n

And so it proved. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched one of the deadliest attacks of the war, waves of drones and ballistic missiles against civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities, shattering entire residential blocks and sending hundreds of people to bomb shelters and underground stations.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had fired 74 ballistic, cruise and anti-ship missiles overnight as well as guided aircraft missiles and almost 500 drones.<\/p>\n

Initial reports said 25 people were killed in Kyiv, with more than 80 injured. By Friday the death toll had risen to at least 30.<\/p>\n

The grim news added a deadly resonance to Mr Zelensky\u2019s passionate plea during the ceremony, as he spoke of European companies, controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarchs, which were shipping materials to the Russian war effort – a not so thinly veiled reference to Aughinish Alumina, owned by Oleg Deripaska and – according to the Swedish tax authorities – still controlled by him as well.<\/p>\n

Mr Zelensky said: “Every ton of raw materials that end up in Russia is used against us in this war.”<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters
\nFirefighters put out a fire on a destroyed building in Kyiv this week<\/p>\n

That some of those dozens of ballistic missiles that killed children as they slept may have been built with aluminium whose provenance was a refinery on the Shannon Estuary has left the whiff of political cordite hanging over the presidency launch.<\/p>\n

The topic took up a large part of the bilateral meeting between the Taoiseach and Mr Zelensky ahead of Wednesday\u2019s ceremony. Despite the Ukrainian president\u2019s frustrations at the continuing supply of alumina, he politely acknowledged that Ireland was still investigating the matter.<\/p>\n

“We are grateful to the Government and to Miche\u00e1l [Martin] for the fact that Ireland is conducting the relevant investigation.<\/p>\n

“We very much hope for a positive result for us in this investigation, and we do hope that we will not have to wait for it for a month, so I am confident that at the end of the day, whatever we are doing now, we’re cutting every possibility in every sphere for Russia to build up, to militarise itself.”<\/p>\n

He said it was very important that Russia\u2019s economy continued to shrink as a result of EU sanctions.<\/p>\n

“We can see that immediately, just as it is shrinking, Russia’s capability to perform massive attacks decreases, and all of that is reflected in the quantity of casualties in Ukraine. I’ll be honest with you, so we are really interested in the results of this investigation.”<\/p>\n

The Aughinish issue continued to overshadow the opening days of the Presidency, as the 64-strong visiting Brussels press corps – of which RT\u00c9 News and the Irish Times were members – repeatedly asked ministers and the Taoiseach about the issue during briefings.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, the T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said he had not been part of any discussions regarding a possible nationalisation of the refinery. He added that the controversy need not lead to a binary outcome: either the plant closing (which is what the company has threatened, should sanctions materialise) or that things continue as is.<\/p>\n

“I have never accepted this as a binary issue,” he told a briefing in Iveagh House. “There have to be ways of addressing issues that enable crucial supply chains to continue into the European Union and enable an absolute clarity that there’s no indirect assistance in any manner of means to Putin’s regime.”<\/p>\n

In University College Cork (UCC) on Thursday, the Taoiseach suggested there would be a joint approach once the Government\u2019s investigation is complete: “We, with the Commission, then could develop an approach that would deal with the core issue here in terms of material going from that plant to Russia.”<\/p>\n

\"European
\nUrsula von der Leyen and Miche\u00e1l Martin at University College Cork<\/p>\n

During a joint news conference with the Taoiseach yesterday afternoon, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made it clear that it was for “Ireland to lead” on the investigation and to set the timelines.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said the issue did not make up a substantive part of his bilateral meeting with the Commission president earlier that morning.<\/p>\n

However, Ireland\u2019s EU Commissioner Michael McGrath made it clear that the EU could “refine and sharpen” its response to the alumina issue, once the Irish investigation was complete.<\/p>\n

While alumina was unlikely to be included in the EU\u2019s 21st sanctions package against Russia – currently being finalised – the Commission has “learned” how to adapt when new evidence came to light.<\/p>\n

“We need to see the evidence first,” Mr McGrath told RT\u00c9 News.<\/p>\n

“Alumina has not been included in any of the 21 sanctions packages that we have so far, but we are always open to refining and sharpening our approach, so that we close any loopholes that can result in the Russian war machine being fed and getting the materials and the equipment that it needs to continue the bombardment of civilians in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“We will examine the investigation report with interest. We will continue the dialogue with the Irish Government, and if there is a need to address any gaps or close any loopholes to ensure that the Russian war machine is not consistently being fed, then I think we will act together on that issue in the period ahead.”<\/p>\n

Privately, senior EU figures believe that something will have to be done about the plant, not least because of the clear concern in Kyiv that – notwithstanding the risk to hundreds of jobs in Limerick, or to the system that keeps Europe\u2019s manufacturing sector supplied with aluminium – any raw materials feeding Russia\u2019s war machine must be stopped if the war is to end sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

That suggests that the plant – or the product – could yet face sanctions, perhaps in the 22nd package.<\/p>\n

Much depends on the outcome of the Irish investigation and the extent to which it can conclusively determine if the component is, indeed, making its way into Russian weapons systems, or what damage might be done to Europe\u2019s industrial base should the plant close completely.<\/p>\n

Aughinish Alumina has warned that the EU should think hard before sanctioning the plant.<\/p>\n

In a briefing note provided to the Government, the company states: “With just five remaining alumina refineries in the EU, Aughinish\u2019s closure would immediately tighten alumina supply in the region.<\/p>\n

“The Kubikenborg aluminium smelter in Sweden would be without an alumina supplier whilst the Dunkirk smelter in France would see close to 70% of its alumina supply halted.<\/p>\n

“It is unclear if either aluminium smelter could source large volumes of alumina from third countries such as China or India, but the tightening supply of alumina in the EU would likely lead to increased cost pressures for both entities as well as the potential for employment impacts at these facilities.”<\/p>\n

\"Aughinish
\nAughinish Alumina has warned that the EU should think hard before sanctioning the plant<\/p>\n

It is worth remembering that the Russian company Rusal, which owns Aughinish, also owns the Kubikenborg smelter, and owns, or has minority stakes in, a range of mines in Guinea, Brazil and elsewhere which supply the bauxite needed for the production of alumina.<\/p>\n

That suggests a stranglehold on the supply chain which could seriously complicate a bid to sanction the plant, and could ultimately protect Oleg Deripaska\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Senior sources suggest that nationalisation of the plant – which might in theory de-couple the production of alumina from its Russian links – appears to be a remote prospect, both legally and in terms of avoiding a serious supply chain issue.<\/p>\n

The EU would have to re-engineer the entire aluminium model in a way that protects European industry, and not benefit geostrategic rivals such as China.<\/p>\n

Despite the controversy, the Government can look back with some satisfaction on the launch of the Presidency.<\/p>\n

During an hour-long meeting in UCC yesterday between the Taoiseach and his team, and President Von der Leyen and her cabinet, there was a business-like focus on the objectives, priorities and timelines of the Presidency, according to a Government source.<\/p>\n

These focused on the big topics that will dominate: the EU\u2019s competitiveness agenda, the seven-year budget, enlargement – with a focus on concluding Montenegro\u2019s accession negotiations by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

President Von der Leyen seemed genuinely impressed by the deep research being carried out at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, which she visited last night.<\/p>\n

“This is an innovation powerhouse,” she told the joint news conference yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“Europe is bridging a gap we have struggled all along with. We have to move from the test to the scale. We have all the ingredients that are necessary, we have the talent, we have the innovation, the research, and the development, we have the infrastructure, we have the capital – if we get a Capital Markets Union [a key objective of the Irish Presidency] – but what we now need is scale. This sets the tone for the Irish Presidency.”<\/p>\n

\"EU
\nMichael McGrath said the EU could ‘refine’ its response to the alumina issue, once the Irish investigation was complete<\/p>\n

Overall, member states are expecting a professional operation by the Irish civil service and diplomatic corps and they are aware that Ireland\u2019s preparation, going back at least two years, has been formidable.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach will spell this out – again – when he addresses MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The challenges are immense: Miche\u00e1l Martin said that achieving consensus on the size and scope of the seven-year EU budget by the end of the year will mean “reconciling the irreconcilable”, not least given Germany\u2019s demand that the \u20ac2 trillion draft proposal from the European Commission be cut by \u20ac400 billion for starters.<\/p>\n

Ms Von der Leyen warned that, unless the EU develops new revenue streams for the budget, then it will have to find an extra \u20ac60bn per year just to start repaying the NextGenerationEU post-Covid loans from 2028.<\/p>\n

That will either require member states to significantly increase their national contributions, or the budget will have to be cut by 40pc.<\/p>\n

“It all has to add up,” warns Mr McGrath. “How much money we collect from member states, or from taxes, or own resources [i.e. new revenue streams] that we can generate.<\/p>\n

“That will determine then how much we can spend, and then we have to allocate it out among the priorities. The consequences of not reaching an agreement in the months ahead will sharpen the focus on getting it over the line.”<\/p>\n

The 60-odd journalists from every corner of the EU who were brought through multiple ministerial briefings in Dublin this week – not to mention site visits to UCC\u2019s Sustainability Institute, the LIR National Ocean Test Facility (NOTF) and the Tindall Institute – will give their verdicts across multiple media platforms this weekend.<\/p>\n

Some of the briefings clearly reflected official concern about Ireland\u2019s reputation internationally over its ability to defend the undersea cables on our western seaboard (there were detailed presentations by experts on Ireland\u2019s cybersecurity and maritime defence efforts).<\/p>\n

Ireland remains an enigma in some respects to European observers: a wealthy net contributor which has by far the lowest spend on defence, which has spent a huge amount of political capital on the Gaza question, which is keen on fiscal discipline, yet refuses to join the budget hawks like Germany, the Netherlands and others.<\/p>\n

“To me the most important takeaway this week,” reflects Thomas Gutschker, political correspondent covering the EU and NATO with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “is a better understanding why Ireland, being a net payer into the EU budget, has not joined the frugal countries. Because the collective memory is still fresh how much EU funds have contributed to this impressive economic surge”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fanfare and nostalgia that washed over Ireland’s EU presidency launch in Dublin Castle on Wednesday was given…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-532328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532328","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=532328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}