Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----have on a country. Venezuela is experiencing increases in maternal mortality and neonatal deaths, a refugee crisis, abject poverty and the removal of people's democratic freedoms. A number of European countries are taking a stronger stand on this and are calling for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and for free and fair elections. We want people in that country to have security, democracy, human rights and hope again. That announcement was made by four countries but it would have been more effective if it had been made by an EU of 27 countries. These are the kinds of areas where the Union can be a force for good in standing up to the terrible badness and evil that is happening in Venezuela at the moment.

The UN Security Council bid is being led by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. There is nobody in my Department whose specific job is to work on that bid but my Department plays a supporting role and many of us are involved in many different ways.

I do not have any plans to travel to Japan. I am not sure if I have even received an invitation-----

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