Uh, Lynn, tell us, um, what you discovered in relation to a government report on value for data centers to Ireland, uh, thanks to FA- FOI, a freedom of information request.

Yeah.

A- a- and good to be on the show, Shane.

Um, so basically, we, [laughs] I suppose we all, we're all familiar with the KPMG report that came out in June that was sort of singing the praises of, of the data center policy that we have, and very high figures related to jobs and economic benefits.

Um, so we had put in a freedom of information request to see sort of, I suppose, the correspondence between the department and, uh, those who were commissioned to write this report.

And what we found through the FOI, and was reported in the journal today by Conor O'Carroll, is that very clearly the, the government had a very, not just a very hands-on approach, uh, with the, the writers of the report, but also had their intention, which was that they wanted this report to vindicate themselves as to the, the direction of travel of, of data center policy, as opposed to using the 100,000 euros of public money to actually do a, a genuine cost-benefit analysis, uh, to this policy, and are we, uh, you know, on the right track with, with the direction of travel when it comes to just rolling out the red carpet for data centers.

So the FOIs, uh, um, you know, pro- produced numerous things.

[laughs] Okay, we'll do that again.

Lynn, tell me, how has it gone for you in terms of the work and the key issues you're passionate about over the last 12 months, really?

No, I mean, it's really depressing to see what's happening.

I mean, as we said at the start of the term, we all knew it wasn't going to be like the previous term where, you know, the sort of Green New Deal and the Green Party, Green Group were very strong.

And even Ursula von der Leyen was talking about the Green New Deal.

We knew it wasn't going to be like that, but we didn't think that things would go back.

We thought, right, we'll just, as you said, hold the line and then try and, you know, rebuild in a better environment whenever the numbers change.

What we've seen under Ursula von der Leyen's commission now is just horrific for anybody who cares about standards and, as you said, workers' rights issues.

Is it because, is the speed in conflict with safety

Where does Sinn Féin stand on this?

I think the issue is, I mean, obviously there's hundreds of jobs linked into this factory.

I mean, and there's workers who will be listening tonight as well.

So I think like what's... really surprising from the Irish government's perspective is, I mean, Achna Salumna has come up since the war started.

I mean, it has been referenced numerous times because of who owns it, the oligarch who is on the sanction list.

So I just find it surprising that you have a situation where the CSO is saying one figure.

You have then the company giving another figure to the government and the Minister for Trade and Enterprise going on the radio and basically kind of calling into question the CSO figure, which is the state body, and believing the company's figure.

No,

hereOkay, Lynne?

Well, I mean, look, we've been calling for a long time of inspections of, of the planes using Shannon, and I mean, and just to, to look at the Swiss country, which is Switzerland is a neutral country which has barred the US military from using its airspace.

So the Irish government have very clearly, since the Iraq war, have taken an i- an approach to Shannon Airport is, if we don't ask, we don't know, and therefore, uh, there's no problem and nothing to see here.

And for a long, long time we've been calling for the inspections of the planes.

Um, so I mean, I, I wasn't in the Dáil today for the, the detail of the bill, but it is insane [laughs] that you would have a sovereign country that does not know what is going through its airspace and what, uh, munitions would be carried on planes.

Um, and despite the fact that repeatedly now we've seen, uh, evidence being put out into the public domain of what's on those planes, as, as Patricia has outlined, but also photographs of weapons being openly carried around Shannon Airport.

Mm.

Uh, so I mean, the evidence has been there for a very, very long time, and if the government were saying, as Minister Ryan in the previous government was saying, "We don't have the powers to inspect," well, then I think it's welcome that we do have a bill now to give them the powers to inspect.

What plane, Boylan, do you want to achieve, do you think, in the party with putting down this motion? Because there are consequences.

Well, I mean, the consequences are yet to be seen, because if you look at what happened in 2022, when Poland, Sweden and Czechia said that they were not going to play Russia, four days later, Russia was banned from the competition and no fines followed.

Also, if you look back in 1999, just at the different attitudes that the Irish government had then, and I would say that was when we weren't afraid to speak up on international issues.

when Jim McDade as the Minister for Sport went out and begged with other European countries to support Ireland in the Yugoslavia game not going ahead.

Bertie Ahern as the Taoiseach even actually said, you know, that UEFA were not being fair in putting Ireland into this position.

And here we are now with an Irish government saying that the players need to go out and play the game against Israel who's carrying out a genocide, who have 10 football teams that are playing in occupied territory and that yet they're not going to go and cheer the team on.

Why

No, don't pick

The Climate

Change Advisory Council has criticised the retrofitting scheme because, again, there's too narrow of those who can afford to retrofit and then a small cohort who can't.

We're looking at target of 71 votes, weren't we? They've also criticised the electric vehicle grant funding and we've looked at analysis of that, that those grants are going to the most affluent areas, but not only the most affluent, urban areas.

And it's really rural Ireland that we need to have the electric vehicles because there's no public transport for people living in rural Ireland.

I know, but I

What happens if it's delayed and it's delayed by two months? We get it in November 2026.

We don't have the level of ambition that, or I suppose urgency that other countries have shown.

Like Ciarán is right, we have a fossil fuel crisis again, the second in a matter of four or five years.

Are we ready then in Ireland to keep everyone safe for this EU presidency? Lynne?

Well, I mean, I know that certainly when it comes to the anti-drone, it'll be two months into the presidency before that technology is actually ready to go.

But I do think we have to get the balance right here.

I think we absolutely cannot be naive in terms of threats to security during the presidency, but also we cannot be scaremongering as an excuse to once again try and undermine our neutrality.

And I think there are actors in the field who are deliberately trying to do that and scaremonger people but 100% we need to invest in our defence forces and there's nobody I think that would question that our defence forces have been chronically underfunded for years we have more people leaving the defence forces every year that are joining So the government needs to do that.

They should have done that years ago.

They haven't.

The government speaks about

Yeah,

I mean, that's the big concern here is that we should not be finding out about this in the newspaper.

I know my colleague Doneco O'Lear raised it with Minister McEntee back in March when the first report started to come out about concerns that the Illumina was going to Russia.

And Minister McEntee didn't make reference... then, do you mean in terms of the facts and the figures and also about the level of lobbying that has taken place by this company? Yes, we need to do impact assessments in terms of sanctions and make sure that you're not hurting yourself more than you're hurting Russia.

And I mean, myself and Kathleen Funchan have repeatedly voted for amendments and have been criticised for doing that in the European Parliament.

But I don't think the government are being completely transparent here.

I mean, we should not be waking up two days in a row and getting information in the media that should be provided to members of the opposition.

But

And Janice Boylan you'd say possibly needs to have a bit of clear water between her and Daniel Ennis to, to hope to get home?

Yeah, no, and look, Janice ran a fantastic campaign.

I mean, she, she left it all on the pitch.

Uh, like, and I, and I know what it's like to be in a by-election, as you said, because everybody's looking at the one candidate.

You're not [chuckles] able to hide behind all the rest of the candidates across the country.

So it's a very intense campaign.

You know, there's a lot of media focus as well and those big debates, and I think Janice performed exceptionally well on the week in politics, and that stood to her.

And I just, I'm struggling to see how that cohesion can be maintained on the left.

I want to give you a, a right to respond to what Dan just said.

Well, well, I think, first and foremost, you cannot defend the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

That's, you know, that is against international law, and that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.

Uh, there is no Hamas in the West Bank, and they're there with the brutal, violent illegal settlers who are aided and abetted by the Israeli, uh, Defense Forces.

So Israel is committing numerous, uh, international crimes, uh, and has been sa- and has not been held to account, and that is why it feels so emboldened to continue, uh, to just run roughshod across international law.

And as regards the peace plan, I mean, Donald Trump is trying to undermine the UN.

He's trying to undermine the International Court of, of Justice, the International Criminal Court, by setting up this board of peace which doesn't have Palestinian involvement in it.

So, so what sort of actions are you talking about?

Lynne Boylan, is there anything that we're missing?

Well, hang on until I pick my jaw up off the floor, Anton, because a year or so ago we had what was called the largest reform of the planning system in Ireland.

And the government of Fine Gael, which Regina is a member of, actually voted against a lot of these proposals.

So the utility companies came with a proposal calling for parallel consent so that you would get all of those approvals from the different bodies at the same time.

Fine Gael rejected that.

They also called for statutory timelines so that you would have decisions and set times.

Fine Gael objected to that.

Liam Boylan, I'll give you the last word, but I'd ask briefly if you would.

Uh, the European Union is, of course, Israel's largest trading partner, but what do you think could come of this review given that there is no unanimous position, uh, within the European, uh, Union on Israel?

Israel?Well, I think for- first and foremost, I'd, uh, I'd echo what Jeremy is saying, is that the, the only reason why the EU has announced this review, and there isn't even a, a, a, an overall, like, there isn't even a majority at the EU Council level to review the trading agreement, is because of the people power and the pressure that is coming on politicians right across the European Union, and I'd encourage people to continue to do that.

Um, but I would say that the time for a review is long since passed, so what we're calling for is to suspend the agreement pending the review.

The review can take place, they can do the, the research.

If they haven't seen what everybody has seen on their phone, is that Israel is not upholding, uh, human rights (laughs) in Article II of the trading agreement.

It should be suspended, but we're calling for them to suspend it, then carry out your review and come back with your findings.

But what we're fearing is that the announcing a review is like kicking it down the road.

Um, please.