Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Has the Minister of State given consideration to the impact the agreement has had on human rights in Kazakhstan? I refer to how the agreement has been used internally in Kazakhstan. It has been linked to Ireland's vote for Kazakhstan's membership of the UN Security Council as a way to suggest that Kazakhstan enjoys a forward moving, democratising and improving situation and thus improve its image, internally and externally. Let me put my comments in context. I had a particular interest in Kazakhstan because, as a member of the European Parliament, I was part of a delegation that travelled to Central Asia. I visited a group of workers in Kazakhstan who were subsequently massacred in December 2011 in a really brutal situation with mining workers in Zhanaozen. I was subsequently blocked from visiting after raising concerns about human rights, workers' freedom and a lack of press freedom. A dictatorship is in power. How is the agreement used in Kazakhstan?