John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am deeply disturbed by the tenor of the motion which is completely unbalanced. While one might reject the validity of the referendum in the Crimea, it should be recalled the Crimea was given to the Ukrainians in the 1950s without the consent of the people of the Crimea. Many of the latter still consider themselves to be Russian.

My problem with the motion is that it is completely unbalanced. It says nothing about the illegal power grab by Ukraine's far right which has swept into power and is part of the Ukraine's interim government. For instance, the role of Ukraine's national security advisor was given to Andriy Parubiy. He is a founder member of the Social-National party in Ukraine, which is a fascist party that he styled on Hitler's Nazi party. I do not know if the Minister of State was aware of that but if so, he might not have considered moving this motion.

The post of vice-minister has been given to Oleksandr Sych who is a member of the Svoboda party. Last year, the World Jewish Congress called on this party to be banned along with Greece's Golden Dawn party. The Svoboda party has close connections with the British National Party and Hungary's Jobbik party which are completely racist and homophobic.

The chief rabbi in Kiev has advised all Jews to leave that city. Is this the government that we are supporting? What about the deputy prime minister? He has spoken on abortion rights and has commented on rape. He provoked an international outcry when he said that "women would not be raped if they lived the kind of lifestyle where they did not drink or did not associate and keep controversial company". That is outrageous. I am shocked and appalled but I do not know if the Government has done its research on this motion.

The interim government of the Ukraine has outlawed two of the largest and most influential political parties - the Ukraine communist party and Yanukovych's party, which I do not subscribe to.

I do not have much time left, although I would like to go into a lot more detail on what has happened, including the fact that they have disenfranchised large sections of the population in the Ukraine.

The solution must be about territorial integrity and regional autonomy. It is not going to work without the latter. Hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine consider themselves Russian and hundreds of thousands consider themselves disenfranchised. We will have left a great deal to be desired if we do not include some criticism of the make-up of the Ukrainian Government before the motion is put to the House. It is a matter which will come back to haunt us in the weeks, months or years to come.

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