Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I am genuinely not trying to score political points but I was disappointed with the Minister's answer. In reply to a written parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Mac Lochlainn, the Minister stated: "I have no grounds on which to dispute these views or to demand a further investigation." That is why I expressed disappointment. There is no evidence to support the claim that this matter has been investigated. Who in the Turkish Government told the Minister that this matter had been investigated and it was concluded that this was not sabotage? On what basis were the conclusions drawn? Did he inquire about the nature of the investigation that led them to these conclusions? The official investigation involving the coast guard had only begun hours before the report that it was not sabotage appeared in a newspaper. It has not even concluded and, therefore, how the Turkish authorities could conclude it was not sabotage is beyond me. From whom and on what basis have they given the Minister this information?

He got somewhat annoyed when I referred to the collaboration between European governments. Why did the Government and other European governments say to Israel "Just do not do any harm to anybody when you are intercepting the flotilla", which is more or less what the Minister said earlier, instead of saying to them "Do not intercept the flotilla because these are peaceful activists bringing aid to people who are unfairly and brutally besieged"? That is what anybody would expect our Government and European governments to say because the siege is wrong. My interest is in the lifting of the siege and not in the protest. I became involved in politics having visited the Palestinian occupied territories at the beginning of the first intafada. The appalling plight of the Palestinians and the failure of western governments to do anything about it motivates me.

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