Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome to the House. At the outset, I want to say that our officials throughout the world, anywhere I have ever been, have been amazing people doing an amazing job. The Minister, and indeed his forerunners as Minister for Foreign Affairs, have had high profiles internationally and have served the country well.

However, let us start with Iran. I cannot understand why, when we decided to go back to Iran, we did not open an embassy there. It strikes me that sometimes when we look at foreign policy in this country, we do so while being afraid of two nations. These are, to our west, the US, and to our east, China. We should open an embassy in Iran. We should be treating both the United States and China as partners, not as dominant powers we are careful not to upset in any way. I know there are problems with Iran. I know that issues need to be sorted out there. The only way to sort these things out is by being on the ground and engaging with the people. I would like some idea of the timeline for the opening of a full embassy in Iran.

With respect to China, I will not go back over the subject of Richard O’Halloran other than to put it into the same mix that I have just outlined. It seems as though we are afraid to upset China in any way. China is either a partner of this country or it is not. If it is not a partner of this country, we should get tough with them at the end of the day.

Similarly, with regard to Taiwan, most European countries now have a representative in Taipei. Why are we so afraid to go there, especially given how responsive Taiwan was to our needs with respect to personal protective equipment, PPE, and the like when the pandemic hit. Taiwan was a tremendous partner to Ireland. It sent PPE over to nursing homes. It was just wonderful in its response. I cannot understand why we do not have somebody on the ground there. The European Union has people on the ground. Most of the European countries have people on the ground. We do not have to open an embassy. All we have to do is have a representative there that would be able to talk directly to the Taiwanese Government.

I was never enthusiastic about the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. I am mindful of the words of Greta Thunberg last night on the news, “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”. Very shortly-----