Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Nuclear weapons are probably the most monstrous invention of humanity. Coming fairly close behind them are cluster munitions. As the Taoiseach knows, this country was the locale and one of the major promoters of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban them, with more than 100 countries signing up to it. Then this weekend we had the spectacle of US President Joe Biden talking about the "very difficult decision" to give Ukraine cluster munitions, which spread explosives over wide areas and leave things on the ground that explode. They are picked up by children and blow kids' arms and legs off and so on. They are a disgusting vile weapon that this country has been part of calling for a ban on. They are, of course, used by Russia, disgustingly, but now it seems the United States and Ukraine think it is okay to use these disgusting, vile, immoral weapons.

The Taoiseach talked about the strategic compass. Where is the moral compass in the European Union to say this is absolutely outrageous that anybody would consider using these disgusting, horrific, barbaric weapons and that our so-called allies in the United States or in Ukraine would consider using these things? I hope the Taoiseach will speak out and say a little bit more than that he is concerned about the use of these weapons. They are vile and we should speak out in the loudest terms against their deployment by anybody, but particularly by people who we regularly talk about as being allies.

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