Helen McEntee said there will be engagement with workers at Aughinish Alumina about its future, but that first it had to be established whether its products are ending up in Russian military equipment.
A report from the Department of Enterprise on these details is due to be published shortly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland on Tuesday.
The Government has come under significant pressure in Europe to show the Irish industrial plant is not playing a downstream role supplying the Russian war machine.
“I’m very conscious that we’re talking about this a lot and behind all of this there are people who have jobs and obviously who are concerned about their own livelihoods and ... then we’re obviously talking about making sure Ireland is not in any way contributing to what is an absolutely brutal war that’s been going on for many years,” she said.
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“So how do we make sure that we have all of the facts? How do we make sure that once we have those facts we’re engaging with the [European] commission but also engaging with workers, the company and people on the ground as well,” she said.
“So the first steps are to establish all of the facts and we will very soon have the details and the outcome of reviews that’s being done.”
When asked about a suggestion by Mayor of Limerick John Moran that a forum be established by his office where information could be shared with the workers, McEntee said: “That’s not for me to agree, but I have no doubt that if there is to be anything happening that there will be engagement with people on the ground.
“But I do have to say we need to take a step back here. We have to establish the facts and then we have to engage further with the commission but of course we’d engage with workers if anything were to change, if anything were to be suggested.
“At the moment what I’m working on here in Brussels and what I’ve been working on over the weekend is the current package of sanctions against Russia ... and we are absolutely focused and determined on getting that across the line because we know sanctions are working.
“We’ve always advocated to put pressure on Russia and that is not going to change.”
Reporting by The Irish Times and other media outlets detailed how Aughinish Alumina is exporting vast amounts of the raw material alumina to smelters in Russia, where it is then sold to a company supplying aluminium to Russian arms manufacturers.
The European Commission had not suggested including alumina products or exports in earlier packages of proposed sanctions, in part because of the important role Aughinish Alumina also plays supplying European heavy industry.
The Shannon estuary refinery is owned by Russian metals giant Rusal, which Swedish tax authorities recently concluded remains under the control of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Aughinish Alumina previously warned it could be forced to shut the Irish plant in the event its exports were sanctioned by the EU.
