Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said the UK Government has concluded that the Russian state was highly likely to be behind the attempted murders. We are not going by somebody else's evidence in our decision-making. They do not even have any. They say it is highly likely. When was anybody ever convicted for being highly likely of being guilty? I do not understand that, unless the laws have been changed. I might not like the Tánaiste's neoliberal politics or his hawkish foreign policy, but I have a lot of time for him. I respect his sincere approach to issues and his integrity. However, I am disappointed with this. This is not strong leadership.

The Tánaiste said that if we had not done this, we would have been in a difficult place. I do not believe Austria is in a difficult place and it is not going to expel anyone. I do not think Mr. de Valera was in a difficult place during the Second World War for not getting involved and despite incredible pressure to do so. We would have been respected if we had said that if there was proof that this had happened, we would look at it. However, there is none. If the guy who is being expelled should not be here, why was he not thrown out last week, last month or last year? I understand the Tánaiste's point that this is being done in solidarity with Britain. We can agree or disagree with that. However, there is no basis for throwing this guy out. We can stand solidly with Britain on many issues but we do not have to throw people out on its behalf. It does not make sense.

The attempt to poison the two individuals was an incredibly bad thing to do. However, 130 children are going to die in Yemen today. That number are dying every day because of hunger and disease caused by the Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates, UAE, coalition, with the help of the Americans. We are moving mountains, by throwing out a diplomat and having statements in the Dáil, over the attempted murder of two individuals in Britain while 130 children will die in Yemen. We are still trading with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I am not saying that we should not trade with them. If we are going to trade with America, we might as well trade with everybody. In 2015, the American special operations forces killed people in 135 different countries without trial. There are only approximately 200 countries in the world.

The Fianna Fáil speaker told us that Russia is undermining European values. We should do the sums and find out how many people the Americans have killed in the past 50 years and how many the Russians have killed.

More than 1 million citizens have died in Iraq because of the invasion and 500,000 children have died from the after-effects of the bombings in the 1991 war. In 1996, Madeleine Albright said that this was a price worth paying in order to maintain American influence and control in the region. She said, "We think the price is worth it", when asked about the 500,000 children who had died from the after-effects of that war. More than 1 million citizens died in Iraq and close to 1 million people died in the various countries around that region. I am rightly amused by the take on the Syrian war, and I wish people would actually inform themselves about it. It is not a black and white situation; there are many sides doing a lot of bad things in it and it has been a terrible disaster. It need not have been that way. It was an avoidable conflict. The amount of destruction that has taken place was not necessary. Why is Ireland not throwing out Israeli diplomats on a regular basis for the genocide that is carried out in Palestine? They are carrying out apartheid in their own country. I do not believe the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, agrees with many things that he has to do. I believe he is a very honest individual and I do not accept that the Tánaiste thinks this is the way Ireland should be doing things.

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