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

Will the committee discuss, and does the Taoiseach propose that it discuss in advance of the European Council, issuing as a State an unequivocal condemnation of the Spanish state and Mariano Rajoy for the brutal and violent suppression of a democratic exercise in self-determination by the people of Catalonia? Article 1 of the UN Charter and all international law clearly defines self-determination. It is the right of people to "freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development." That right has been violently suppressed by the Spanish state. While there has been some mealy-mouthed criticism of violence in general, there has been no straightforward condemnation, and there should be, by the Government and European leaders of the brutal suppression of a democratic exercise in the right to self-determination.

That is at stake. We would not accept if the British state stated people in England or Wales had the right to determine whether Scottish people had independence, yet comments made by the Taoiseach and other European leaders appear to stand over the right of the centralised Spanish state to suppress the right of the people of Catalonia to self-determination. It is shocking in its hypocrisy for the European Union that goes on and on about its commitment to human rights to stand idly by while the Spanish state uses the most savage means to crush a democratic exercise in self-determination. Is the Taoiseach going to come out clearly and stand up for the right of people to democratically decide their own political future, while not taking sides on which way they should vote?

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