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

I welcome the fact that there has been a postponement of a couple of the episodes of the flogging. However, I cannot help but note the stark difference between the tone of concern raised by the Minister and European and international leaders when it comes to a case such as this or the 17 journalists killed in Gaza - the other example I mentioned - or the fact that there were over 80 beheadings in Saudi Arabia last year. This would be a regular occurrence. Mr. Badawi was lucky in the sense that his flogging took place at the same time as the Charlie Hebdo atrocity and for that reason has gained some international focus. However, what happens when that focus is gone and this barbaric action continues? All we get from the European Union and from leaders in this country and elsewhere are expressions of concern or appeals to the governments in question, in this case the Saudi Government.

When the Charlie Hebdoatrocities occurred we had a much more vigorous response, including declarations of zero tolerance. To put it simply, we would not allow an embassy of ISIS to open in Dublin. However, the Saudi Arabian Embassy is allowed. They are beheading people week in week out, jailing journalists, flogging them and cutting people's hands and legs off. Yet we continue to treat them in the normal diplomatic manner. We continue to trade with them. There are no sanctions. There is not the same tone of unequivocal outrage we saw expressed in Paris. It was as if a war against extremism was declared in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdoaffairs, yet when atrocities just as bad or worse take place in countries with which we happen to do business, we are much more muted in our language and in the substance of our response.

Where are the sanctions? Where are the penalties? Where are the Government-organised protests over the behaviour of the Saudi Government or, for that matter, the outrageous attempt by Israel to justify the killing of 17 journalists in Gaza? It sought to publicly justify this and called some of the journalist terrorists. Where is the consistency in our concern for human rights and freedom of expression and how is that going to be manifested?

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