Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The election of Syriza has been a fantastic shot in the arm for hard-pressed citizens throughout Europe by raising the prospect of a Europe that could be run in the interests of the millions rather than the millionaires. I, too, pass on my best regards to the new government and the Greek people.

It is against that backdrop that I was appalled to hear the comments of the Minister for Foreign Affairs dismissing the prospect of a debt conference on the basis that it is not in Europe's interest. What Europeans is he talking about? Such a conference would certainly not be in the interests of the big bankers and bondholders but it most definitely would be in the interests of the ordinary citizens of Europe, not least Irish people as well as our Greek and Spanish peers. That vision of hope that the Greek Government has given us is something that people the length and breadth of this country will seek to emulate in the next general election.

It is illustrative to read Paul Krugman's article in The Irish Timestoday in which he said we have to look at the roots of the political earthquake in Greece and realise that it comes from the troika's programme there. These are the people who unleashed a human nightmare of 28% unemployment and 60% youth unemployment in Greece. Those situations exist not because the Greek Government did not listen to the troika, but because it did, and these are the same forces who are telling the new government that it has to be reasonable and realistic. As Krugman says, if anything, the problems that will face Syriza is that it is not radical enough and it needs to take that situation forward, and we should be doing everything we can to support it.

There has been a nauseating hypocrisy, which was dealt with by Deputy Wallace, in regard to how this Government has slavishly followed EU foreign policy. It is a violation of our neutrality and not something in which I believe the Irish people are interested. We are very quick to impose sanctions on Russia, like everyone else, for the illegal annexation of Crimea and the deliberate stabilisation of Ukraine but, as Deputy Wallace said, we have no problem dealing with Saudi Arabia, which nearly makes ISIS look good. Ten people were publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia this year alone. It is nice not to see flags being flown at half mast here. It would be an outrage to women and human rights activists that we would go along with that.

We stand idly by and allow Israel bomb people in Gaza. We have no problem with what is going on in Egypt and so on but it is an entirely different matter when it comes to Russia. What sickening hypocrisy. If we are serious and neutral, why would we not be consistent across the board? The reality is that the conflict between NATO and Russia has been going on for decades but the imminent pressure behind it now is that NATO has basically taken over all of eastern Europe, encircling Russia with military bases. If that was happening on the Canadian or Mexican border, we would have a far greater level of aggression and fatalities than currently is the case. Instead we have an anti-Russian agenda-----

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