Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am happy to speak on this important matter. I note, however, that when it comes to debating the merits of the UK Government's response to the alleged Russian use of a nerve agent in the UK on a former Russian agent and his daughter, there are conflicting positions even within our parties here. I also condemn, in the strongest possible way, the use of that nerve agent in any sovereign state but we need to get our facts right first and not put the cart before the horse as we have done here.

The Taoiseach went into full macho mode last week during the EU Council meeting and firmly aligned himself with France's President, Emmanuel Macron. They are joined at the hip. It is John Wayne stuff. If a newspaper editor were to draw an analogy, he might sum it up as 'Leo the Lion goes up against the Russian Bear'. I do not know what kind of a lion he is but he can be well tamed after this. He might come back with his tail between his legs when the full evidence is heard here. It might seem, on the face of it, to be a very unequal fight and one that the Taoiseach may live to regret at some future point. That is the concern I have, not for the Taoiseach, not that I do not wish him well, but for our country and our people, if it emerges that the Russians were not culpable for this act. What happened to the premise of innocent until proven guilty? Is it now guilty until proven innocent or guilty until proven guilty?

We are over and back to European states and around the world meeting people to discuss the ominous train coming down the tracks in the form of Brexit. At the first whiff of a sneeze from the UK, we all catch flu and say we have to jump into bed with it. We all agree that an unwarranted attack on the sovereign soil of an independent nation such as the UK is an issue of grave concern but we can mind our own business as we did in the Second World War when de Valera kept us neutral. We have benefited greatly from that and earned respect around the world as a neutral country until recently. I agree with Deputy Connolly when we see the musings or the writings or whispers and of the four MEPs who want to change our neutral status and want us to become more warmongers and beef up our defences. They want us to change. That might suit the Government and its allies in Europe but it does not suit the people of Tipperary. I have no truck with it. It is time that wagon was taken off the road. Ireland is a neutral country and it should stay that way. We have had many debates recently about our Army and peacekeepers and we have railed against certain of their aspects and the use of Shannon Airport. We need to wake up. We cannot be on both sides, acting one way and speaking another, namely, out of both sides of our mouths.

No one wants to see such attacks but we must first have a clinical, full and exhaustive investigation, with evidence and proof and someone charged with that attack. We have attached our wagon to the British and 15 or 16 other European countries. Austria did not do it. Other countries have not done it. Are they going to suffer?

There is something very disconcerting about the European response to this alleged attack by Russia. I say alleged because it most certainly has not been proven definitively that the attack was sanctioned by the Kremlin or President Putin, however probable that analysis is. It is probable, dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi go raibh fear i dTiobraid Árann a bhfuil póca ina léine aige. This is all mere hearsay. If this is how we are going to gain kudos with the British as they embark on Brexit, it is a shaky ground or thin ice for us to be walking on.

I also share the concerns of Deputy Boyd Barrett that any expulsion of a Russian diplomat like that which occurred today is potentially a dangerous and reckless move pulling Ireland into an escalating cold war confrontation between the EU the UK, US and Russia. We have many legacy issues. Deputy Boyd Barrett also makes the point that this fundamentally undermines our neutrality and that Fine Gael along with the EU are exploiting the Salisbury atrocity to further their own aims. I say quite boldly.

Aidan McAnespie, the Lord have mercy on him has been dead 40 years. His father, his brothers and his solicitor were here last week seeking justice for his murder. There was a bomb in Omagh that killed 29 people, including a pregnant mother - she and the baby in her womb were killed - with no explanation from the British Government. There were the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 and no explanations for what happened. Here we are all of a sudden and our macho Taoiseach is giving a knee-jerk reaction, looking at his vanity projects, at how to get out and give himself good exposure, the hard man, the tough man, Leo the lion. He might become Leo the lamb very soon. It is Easter, when we traditionally have lamb. He might be a meek little lamb very soon when this is finished. It would be better for him to stand up to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the British Foreign Secretary to get justice and get Aidan McAnespie's body parts returned to his family in order to have a proper post mortem and ascertain the fact that he was murdered in cold blood, nothing else.

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