Shane Ross (Independent)

I see no reason the Minister and the Government should not go on a solo run to make that protest, and not simply within the EU. Ireland has an honourable record on the issue of human rights and should capitalise on it. In recent times, events there have been particularly ugly and apart from the action by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, international reaction has been disappointing. One tends to tire of people such as Mugabe. People rationalise that he is an old man who will die eventually and who will be then replaced by someone better. However, there is no such guarantee.