Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State seems to be wearing his rose tinted glasses tonight. He mentioned several times that the European Union had a unified approach on Ukraine and, in particular, the sanctions. Is that not a little bit of a glossy version of the truth? Is it not the case that the Czech President, for example, has come out and said that the Union should recognise the Russian takeover of Crimea and that a number of businesses, in Germany in particular, are strongly lobbying that the sanctions be lifted? The cracks are emerging in that regard.

Second, will the Minister of State clarify that the types of reform he says are necessary for Ukraine relate to the privatisation of everything, something the Prime Minister has already purported to be in favour of?

The issue raised about the history of the crisis there is not about muddying the waters, rather it is simply the reality that one cannot solve a problem if one does not know the origins of the problem to begin with. The roots of what happened in the Ukraine go back to the overthrow of the government there and interference from external forces for their own benefit and not that of the Ukrainian people. I ask if the Minister of State could also address the point about Libya in terms of what was discussed and whether any security arrangement might involve Ireland.

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