Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and welcome the three speakers whose contributions were very stimulating. However, we do not live in an ideal world. While I accept many of the contributions made, many are predicated upon resources and reform within the State itself. For example, we are theoretically addressing the review of foreign policy and external relations. How does one create a policy around those two issues? Some have said it is important to relate to the people who put us here, the people must relate to Europe, we must go back into the schools and we must educate the politicians. It is a sobering fact and it is not a popular one for a politician to say it. There are about 226 politicians in this complex. We struggle as a small committee as do other committees. The representation is four people today. We struggle to create a quorum. We drag people in who happen to be passing by in the corridor and so on. As soon as they come in, the meeting starts and they leave.

On the questions the witnesses are posing to us - how does one build on what has been achieved so successfully to date, and on Ireland's role among the 28 member states in the European Union? I challenge them to say that, theoretically, they are telling us how to go about it but, in practice, it will be very different. Perhaps I can draw a comparison. If we have closed the three embassies on the grounds of economic inability to sustain them and we have now decided, during this public debate on the review of foreign policy and external relations, to open five embassies and three consulate generals, that will all happen out of the existing budget. There is not an extra cent in the budget for this increased representation. Dr. O'Brennan mentioned the importance of retaining the embassy relationship at each of the 28 member states. I understand that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, three adjoining countries, have diminishing populations while one of them, Lithuania, has been targeted for a reduction in services.

There will be a presence in Jakarta and the embassy to the Holy See is to be reopened. It does not make economic sense to be opening embassies on the ground while ostensibly not increasing the budget. The arguments that we are being asked to engage in would require substantial investment in the budget.

Mr. Proinsias De Rossa mentioned sovereignty, which has been kicked about a few times today. Will he compare the arguments for our position and the counter argument that we play a wonderful role and are highly sought as an independent non-aligned country which engages in the depths of Africa, be it Sierra Leone and further afield. We are uncontaminated because we are not deemed to be affiliated to some power bloc.

I would argue that we must reform the institution of the State before we can be sufficiently empowered to develop the argument that has been made today. We are very proud of what we are doing as a country. Could the delegation offer an opinion as to who got it so wrong about the Ukraine and Armenia, where everybody, including the Chairman, was convinced from listening to one side of the argument in Ukraine? As a western State, have we neglected and not fully understood the complexities of Ukraine; that we have been looking at it as two nations and that we were playing to was the western half of the country? Did the High Representative, Catherine Ashton or the external action services get it so completely wrong? If Ukraine implodes, there are very serious ramifications for the rest of the European project.

I understand the Minister is at one with us when he states he has been in Albania and the Albanians are coming on board, and the same with Moldova. The eastern partnership region started to come unstuck when the Russian Federation, engaging with Armenia, pulled Armenia out of the sphere of influence it was trying to head. Everybody is shocked by the situation that has blown up in Ukraine. Are we that divorced from our understanding of the country? Is our knowledge of the region so unsophisticated that we fail to see the terrible potential in terms of what is already happening?