Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept the document that Mr. O'Gorman has delivered is not one of which he is the author and not one he has the authority to change in any particular way. I would, however, ask him and Amnesty International to reflect on a number of comments. Its origins were in the Cold War. I recall the article in the Sunday Observerthat precipitated it. Since that time and the collapse in Soviet communism, there has been a correlation in the minds of most people that a prosperous, functioning economy is synonymous with democracy. Many countries in the former eastern part of the Soviet Union, particularly Hungary and Poland, testify that liberation to democracy was the only way in which prosperity could be constructed. That is no longer held as a shared view. The relentless rise of the People's Republic of China shows that there can be economic growth without democratic underpinnings. We are in a different world and without democracy, no government can be held to account. Mr. O'Gorman gave evidence to that in his succinct description of why Amnesty International does not publish statistics relating to executions in the People's Republic of China. I say to his organisation and other NGOs that an understanding of the difficult circumstances in which democratically elected politicians function gives an understanding as to why progressive politics might survive, if it is survive at all, but the defeat of the left of centre government in Denmark, even though the Social Democratic Party was the largest party elected only to be supplanted by the second largest party. This party is anti-immigrant and is supporting a coalition led by the third largest party, Venstre, the liberal party, which is leading a right of centre, led by the nose government.

The other side of rescuing people in the Mediterranean is having European governments with a sufficient democratic mandate to take the actions suggested by Amnesty International. Denmark has gone from being one of the most open and liberal countries in northern Europe in the other direction because of the impact of migration on democracy. Ireland is no different from many other northern European countries. I ask for balance in Amnesty International's annual report for 2015 between the tension of maintaining freedom and democracy while recognising that the migratory pressures worldwide should be taken into account. In 35 years from now, the world's population will stabilise at approximately 9 billion. The current European population of 500 million will decline to 450 million. This Continent, the cradle of democracy and civilisation, is facing an existential challenge where, on the one hand, its population is ageing and declining and, on the other, it is being resolutely whipped up into an anti-migrant bias. That is a challenge we all face.The minority Government partner in Greece is anti-immigrant and fascist and others but in a sweeping statement, Amnesty International by bunching together all politicians in this manner, most of whom are democratically elected, does not do a service to the organisation and the ethos of its founding members. It does not encourage politicians to take courageous stands in the direction Mr. O'Gorman suggests because the one guarantee is they will not be re-elected.