Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The quick response of the EU to the Russian authorities' breach of international law is, while welcome, in sharp contrast to the approach to the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the US and, indeed, Israel's role regarding Palestine. That point will not have been missed. NATO has had a role in this over some time. It has had an undisguised ambition to continue what is, in effect, two decades of expansion into the post-soviet territory. We must consider these issues in the background. It would be very foolish of this Government of a neutral country to align itself very rapidly with the new opposition inside Ukraine.

Behind all of this are economic vested interests, privatisation and big companies such as Chevron Corporation and so forth. People on both the western side and the Russian-speaking side of Ukraine are being equally afflicted by the harsh economic policies and the solution to these issues will come from those people, not from them being used as puppets by big multinational corporations for their own goals. Ireland, as a neutral country, should respect and facilitate that by not doing things or not supporting the EU in its external goals which are, in reality, destabilising the situation for the Ukrainian people.

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