David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That would be absolutely splendid. The next thing is the observation that people thought they were going into the machine age and that everything would be done by twiddleometers, as it were, and other things. I am delighted Mr. Staunton indicated that human contact is vital. We are losing it all over the place. We are losing it in our banks. They do not want people; they want machines and more machines all the time. It does not work and it alienates people. That must be also true in the case of diplomacy.
Mr. Staunton spoke very effectively about our representation in Washington and how valuable it was, and that we have this idea that just because we are lovely, chirpy people, we are loved everywhere, which is all rubbish. It is hard work by diplomats and so on. However, I find that every time there is a change of Government, the Opposition will criticise the visits, the costs, the expenses and so on for days like St. Patrick's Day. I think they are immensely valuable and I wonder if we could make that clear and ask people who are in the Opposition not to be harping on about this for their own personal and party political gain, because it is a really valuable thing. Mr. Staunton mentioned the diaspora. We all have had appeals from people in the diaspora, including in Argentina. They have their own newspaper and an old hurling club. They have ached to get involved in Ireland and we have spurned them. They are a resource.
I agree 100% with Mr. Staunton's idea of establishing a policy unit, and it would be worthwhile engraving on our notepaper the statement that although economic diplomacy is increasingly important for Ireland as well as other countries, it is a mistake to imagine that activities that have no apparent commercial benefit, such as promoting human rights, supporting efforts at disarmament and playing a full role in multilateral institutions such as the UN and the OECD, are purely altruistic. It is in our interest. That is a very important point. We should bear that in mind.
Due to that statement and the network of people in The Irish Times, would it not be appropriate to concentrate a little bit more on situations that are delicate, such as Tibet? Tibet is such a huge issue, not just in terms of human rights and the self-immolation of the Buddhist monks and so on, but also in terms of the utter destruction of natural resources. Now might be a good time to do this, because the Chinese are relaxing some of their policies on forced labour camps and re-education. If there is a space in The Irish Times-----