Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I share similar concerns with the previous speaker about our participation in this with a view to having a directive in future. I have the most serious concerns.

From day one I have condemned the illegal invasion of Russia and I stood with sanctions. However, I have come to the point where I am seriously considering their efficacy, what is happening with those sanctions and who they are affecting the most. As an active neutral country that is respected in the world, the least we might do is question. When questioning becomes dangerous, as it has in this Dáil, because I heard the Taoiseach reply to those on the left as being supporters of Putin and reducing the argument to that, it is frightening. I will not waste my few minutes by putting on record once again my abhorrence of what Russia has done.

I am seriously worried about what Europe is becoming. I am seriously worried that more and more we are going into a consensus mentality as the best boys and girls in the class. No other type of view is tolerated; no other type of question. Those who dare are demonised as Putin supporters. These are people who never in their lives supported Putin and who always questioned the system when the establishment was doing everything possible to play up to him. I have the most serious concerns about NATO and what is happening. It is not acceptable that our Taoiseach is in Spain at the moment, or on his way there, to take part in meetings organised by NATO. It is sort of nuanced in that he is not taking part in all of the meetings, just some of them. What type of meetings? Will we have the records of those meetings? Will we have the minutes? Do we know what he is saying on our behalf?

We have a Europe that is building up its fortress more and more. The International Organization for Migration reports that up to 600 people attempting to reach Europe by sea went missing in the first three months of 2022. The updated figure is 900 people that we know about have gone missing, the highest figure since 2014. What is Europe doing about that? Deputies are looking at me as if they do not know how I could come up with this. Surely there is an obligation on us and a moral duty to question what Europe is becoming that is allowing for this type of death and destruction in the Mediterranean Sea while people still swim and go on holidays there. As of 27 June, 900 people have gone missing trying to reach the borders.

I have not had a chance to look in detail at the deal that has been done between Turkey, Sweden and Finland in respect of the Turkish people there. A deal was done with Turkey on helping to build up Fortress Europe in 2015. Turkey was paid what I would call dirty money to deal with the refugee and asylum problem, outsourcing at every level. There is a report from Amnesty International, which I have only had a chance to look at briefly but I will go back to it. It is about Lithuania's behaviour, a proud member of the EU. Colleagues around me might look at what the Amnesty report has said about Lithuania. The report is entitled, "Lithuania: Forced out or locked up – Refugees and migrants abused and abandoned", and was published this week. It catalogues the treatment suffered by refugees and migrants who crossed from Belarus in 2021 and 2022 at the hands of the Lithuanian border guards, the public security service, detention centre staff, lawyers and so on. The human rights violations documented by Amnesty include violent pushbacks, torture and other ill-treatment, including sexual violence and humiliation. That is in Lithuania, a member state of the EU.

We have an Amnesty report on Israel and the Government doing nothing about that. The Amnesty report clearly states that Israel is operating an apartheid system. Months later the Government is still considering its response. We have a war in Yemen that none of us is raising anymore. There are 300,000 to 400,000 dead in a war backed by Saudi Arabia, which is backed by the powers-that-be, including our country.

What am I saying with all of this? Is Russia right? Absolutely not. What is our role as a small, neutral country? What does our experience tell us? It tells us that we need to take our courage in our hands and stand up and show that there is a different way and that sanctions need to be questioned at some point to see if they are affecting what they are supposed to be affecting. I refer to what was said about Cuba in 1963 when President Kennedy brought in sanctions that are still in place. The assistant Secretary of State, Lester D. Mallory, had written that, "every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba ... to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." The obvious question is how making Cuba poorer, sicker and more isolated supports the people of Cuba. Of course, the people of Cuba have persisted. That is just one specific example of sanctions at this point.

Instead of joining the boys' club we should use our voice to question----

See this speech in context