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

There is no comparison between an unmanned drone blowing an innocent child to pieces and a broken piece of glass. The reason people are protesting with peaceful intent is that they find it stomach-churning that the leaders of the most powerful nations in the world would talk about peace and global justice while at the same time deploying these types of weapons to such devastating effect, thereby extinguishing the lives of innocent children and families. The bottom line is that the United States and its G8 partners are the major manufacturers, purveyors and users of weapons of mass destruction.

Will the Taoiseach echo the concerns of protestors in his dealings with Mr. Obama, Mr. Putin and the leaders of the other powerful states that produce, sell and use these weapons? Will he argue that people are right to express concern about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on weapons of war and the means to destroy human lives? That is why people are protesting. As Prime Minister of a country that established its identity in the struggle against empire, the Taoiseach should speak out on behalf of those people. He should make the case that their concerns are justified. Will he also articulate the concern that the major recipient of aid, most of it military aid, from the United States is the state of Israel, which is using that aid to devastating effect in a series of attacks against the innocent people of the occupied Palestinian territories?

Will the Taoiseach further undertake to ask President Obama why his Secretary of the Treasury vetoed a proposal to impose some of the burden of the financial crisis in this country on bondholders? Some of us in this House raised this issue two years ago and that particular intervention has since been confirmed. It has had a devastating effect on the ordinary citizens of this country. Moreover, as we have learned from what happened in Cyprus, it was not necessary. It was, in fact, possible to burn bondholders without the entire financial system falling apart. Yet we were spun the lie at the time that it could not be done. The critical intervention came from President Obama's Secretary of the Treasury that burning bondholders might impact on certain corporate interests in the United States. Will the Taoiseach challenge the Obama Administration on the devastating effect that has had on our citizens?

Finally, will the Taoiseach demand in advance of the summit an assurance from the Northern Ireland authorities and from the Garda that peaceful protestors will be left alone, that there will not be phalanxes of robocops intimidating and terrifying peaceful protestors, trade unionists and environmental activists who want to travel to Fermanagh to raise these legitimate points? The Taoiseach must do so regardless of whether he agrees with those protestors.

See this speech in context