Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will finish my point. I did not interrupt other Deputies. We have relied on each and every occasion on the Royal Air Force to come and scramble its jets and that is not something that should happen.

On the issue of Russia, I am usually complimentary of the actions the Minister takes as the helmsman of the Department of Foreign Affairs but I think we were a little soft-footed with the ambassador, Yuriy Filatov, and with Vladimir Putin. We have to put a halt to the days of Ireland having imperial or cultural hang-ups with the larger nations. There can be no more tipping the cap, whether to Russia, America, Britain or whoever. Our affiliation is to the European Union and we should have been far more robust in telling the Russians to stay well beyond not only our territorial waters but also our exclusive economic zone. I understand the international law in this regard but I think they got a bit of a soft card from Ireland.

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