Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with that, and I do not believe the Minister of State could possibly agree with what is written here. It is bordering on pathetic and I believe the Minister of State is way above that standard. The Tánaiste said it was true that we were not in a position to verify independently, but he went on to say that we have to act and that Ireland cannot sit on its hands. The Tánaiste said that this was the only choice and Ireland must show solidarity. How can intelligent human beings choices be reduced to that? Of course we can show solidarity and show our upset, but our role is to show leadership. Ireland is a neutral country but this does not mean we sit on our hands. It does not mean that we do not participate. Neutrality puts an onus on us to act responsibly, to show leadership and to be a force for peace in the world, not the opposite.

The attack on this man and his daughter, and the effect on the policeman and the other people there, was appalling. There are, however, many ways to react to this incident. It must be put into context. Over the past years, a drama has, quite clearly, been building up as pointed out by other colleagues on the left with regard to NATO, the EU, the United States of America and Russia. There has been a building up of missiles right up to the Russian border. It is utter madness if we believe this situation can be taken in isolation while ignoring all of that, and Ireland has now moved its foreign policy.

I totally agree with the satirical Waterford Whispers when it says, "Russians guilty until proven guilty". It is not innocent until proven guilty anymore. We have moved on and it is guilty until proven guilty but typical Ireland and typical tadhg an dá thaobh - we want it both ways. We do not really want to annoy Russia too much, so we do not pick the ambassador, rather we pick somebody less important, and on the basis of evidence over which we cannot stand. The Dáil has given out about the likes of Boris Johnson with regard to Brexit, yet on this issue he is to be trusted and suddenly we choose to believe him. This all comes on top of an article that I resented having to read today, "Ireland and the EU: Defending our common European home", a Fine Gael MEP discussion paper. I felt sickened and I resented having to read this document by four Fine Gael MEPs, two of whom are women. I am appalled because they should be a force for peace. They should show leadership but instead they tell us that we are using "outdated language" around Ireland's neutrality. There are 15 pages in this revolting document and it is well worth looking at if one could perhaps take medication first. I was certainly disturbed by it.

We are told in the document that "big developments are potentially on the horizon " - outdated language indeed. The document also tells us that Ireland claims a jurisdiction that is about three times the size of Germany, and almost a 1 million sq km, 93% of which is under water. It states that this is of huge strategic interest to the whole EU and it is only reasonable that we look for substantial investment from the EU to bolster our defence capability. In Ireland, 104,000 people who have a job are living in poverty while a total of 780,000 people live in poverty, of whom children make up the largest group at 26.5%, or more than one in four. Yet we have this document from four MEPs, two of whom are female, that tells us that Ireland should spend more money. They tell us that the biggest threat is from cyberspace and from those people out there who are different from us. The threat, however, is from poverty, lack of justice, war pushed by the United States of America, the EU and Russia, and climate change. None of these threats is mentioned in the discussion document, just threats from people who do not look like us, do not act like us and do not speak like us. The document says that we need to defend fortress Europe against those people and those barbarians. That is the basis of that document. It does not contain one single analysis of the real threat, which is our failure to show leadership and to stand up and say there is a different way and that it is the way we are going to push, and not play games that are tadhg an dá thaobh.

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