"The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemicals as weapons, by anyone, anywhere, is particularly shocking and abhorrent."
One Russian diplomat currently working in Ireland will be expelled, Minster for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney has confirmed.
After having briefed his Government's cabinet, Coveney said the Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs met with the Russian Ambassador, Yuli Filtov, to inform him that the accredited member of his staff is to have his diplomatic status removed in line with provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
In a statement, the Tánaiste said that the decision was made in solidarity with the United Kingdom following the Salisbury nerve agent attack which targeted Russian military intelligence officer and double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on 4 March 2018.
"At last week's European Council meeting, EU leaders unanimously agreed with the United Kingdom government's assessment that the Russian Federation is highly likely to have been responsible for the attack in Salisbury... and that there is no plausible alternative explanation," the statement reads.
Stating that all EU states stand in "unqualified solidarity" with the UK, Coveney went on to say that the use of the Novichok nerve agent was an "affront to the international rules-based system on which we all depend for our security and wellbeing."
"The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemicals as weapons, by anyone, anywhere, is particularly shocking and abhorrent," he added.
Russia has 17 accredited diplomats currently at its embassy in Rathgar, Dublin.
