Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not know that I would draw the same equivalence between Saudi Arabia and the United States as the Tánaiste has done. That is fair enough; that is his opinion. I am referring to what Amnesty described as acts that are protected by the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, in other words gross violation of human rights. I refer specifically to the trade mission the Tánaiste himself led. I am concerned about the message it sends. I understand from media reports the Tánaiste said he raised concerns when he was there but not to the extent it was written down or recorded at any of the meetings. I find this to be somewhat disturbing but I am sure the Tánaiste can put on the record of the House when it was done. We saw gross violations of human rights and then immediately following the deputy head of government led a trade mission. That sends a very poor message. Previously I asked the Tánaiste whether the Department pursues a trade-at-any-cost type of policy. I would be grateful if the Tánaiste confirms it does not. I hope it does not but when we see trade missions to places such as Saudi Arabia, and we know its involvement in Yemen, and when we see the State still trades with Israel with regard to goods from the occupied territories we need to send out a very strong message and I do not think it is being done at present.

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