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

I would like to know also what, if anything, the Taoiseach said to the President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk, about matters Russian in the aftermath of the Salisbury attack but also significantly after widespread reports of known and confirmed Russian atrocities in eastern Ghouta, including the use of chemical weapons. There was no call, as I understand it, from the Taoiseach, the European Union, Mr. Tusk or anybody else for expulsions of Russian diplomats as a result of known Russian and Syrian use of chemical weapons against the people of eastern Ghouta, yet in his statement today, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, voiced his shock at the possible use of these weapons in the UK. I do not understand. If suspected but unconfirmed use of these weapons in Salisbury where no evidence is provided prompts expulsions of a Russian diplomat but confirmed and known use of those weapons in Syria does not, that, to my mind, means the expulsions just announced from the Government have nothing to do with the use of chemical weapons and have everything to do with a Government political decision to line up with Cold War posturing by the European Union, the UK and the United States in what is an escalating and, frankly, alarming confrontation that is developing with Russia. This Cold War-style confrontation smacks of John le Carré. The Taoiseach often accuses me of being a conspiracy theorist-----

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