74. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the actions Ireland intends to take in response to the risk of execution faced by individuals who remain accused in Iran; if Ireland will make further specific representations to the Iranian authorities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [63339/26]

I am deeply concerned by the continued use of the death penalty as a means of suppressing political dissent and human rights activism in Iran.

Reporting by Iran Human Rights and Together Against the Death Penalty suggests that at least 1,639 people were executed in 2025: a 68% increase from 2024 and the highest annual number since 1989. This is part of a worrying and unacceptable trend, with a drastic year-on-year increase in executions since the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022. It appears that the conditions of the current war have emboldened the authorities to carry out further executions of political prisoners, protestors and human rights activists, including some of those arrested at the time of the protests and massacres in January.

On 12 August, Ireland joined over 30 other like-minded States, in calling on Iran to immediately end the use of the death penalty and release all those arbitrarily detained. Ireland raises our concerns about Iran’s human rights abuses, including use of the death penalty in our bilateral engagement and in multilateral fora, such as the Human Rights Council and the United Nations Third Committee on Human Rights. My Department also regularly engages with NGOs and human rights organisations, who have expressed grave concern at the alarming increase in use of the death penalty in Iran.

Ireland is strongly opposed to the use of the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances, and there are many especially troubling aspects to its use in Iran. At the 2025 Universal Periodic Review of Iran at the UN Human Rights Council, Ireland raised the death penalty and highlighted in particular Iran’s use of the death penalty against human rights defenders, especially women. We called for the end to all executions in Iran. Ireland was also instrumental in the establishment by the UN Human Rights Council of an ongoing special procedure to investigate human rights abuses in Iran following the Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022. Ireland intends to address this further in a dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran at the UN Human Rights Council on 21 September.

Our concerns are widely shared at European level. The EU urges the Iranian authorities to pursue a consistent policy towards the abolition of the death penalty in all cases. My Department will continue to follow the situation in Iran closely. While I regret that there is at present very little sign of Iran responding positively on these issues. Ireland will continue to call on Iran to cease its use of the death penalty.