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

I accept that the Government is making some efforts in this regard and is saying the right things, but the problem is that these regimes are not responding. The Tánaiste rightly said in response to Deputy Nulty about Saudi Arabia that there are many regimes in the Middle East that on paper appear to be democratic but in reality are brutally repressive. The Tánaiste even suggested that some of them are more oppressive than Saudi Arabia, which would be pretty difficult. There is a strong element of truth in the Tánaiste's view. Other regimes are certainly as repressive in many cases. Under Mubarak, Egypt was one of the most repressive regimes, and it is reverting to type now under el-Sisi and engaging in absolutely vicious crushing of pro-democracy groups. A counter-revolution is taking place. There is no other word for what the regime is doing. It is crushing the democratic revolution in Egypt with the most vile and vicious means. The petition states that no country in Europe or the Western world with any influence should trade any goods, including weapons, with Egypt that could be used against the democracy movement. One could ask what we are doing to make that happen in terms of trade sanctions or whether any threat hangs over the Egyptian regime to the effect that if it does not listen then action will be taken. Otherwise, our words mean little.

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