Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is visits like these which make people a bit nervous about some of our trade partners. The comments of the Minister may have been taken out of context but there is something rotten at the heart of the Saudi Government and in its policies in regard to the conflicts in the region. There is no doubt that it is funding, training and supporting many salafist and jihadist groups and Saudi coalition air strikes are responsible for the majority of the roughly 4,000 deaths in Yemen.

Hospital, schools, marketplaces, weddings and factories have been targeted and remain viable coalition airstrike targets. The coalition carried out an airstrike, on what was possibly the single biggest target in a conflict, on a funeral ceremony in Sana'a which killed more than 140 people and injured 500. I did not read any criticism of that during the Minister's visit. Perhaps it was not the right time to do so. Now the Minister is back in Ireland I would like to think he will clearly separate this visit, from an international view, in terms of what this country is doing in that region. I do not view the coalition to be an important regional supporter for Ireland in that region.

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