John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Mullen's call for a debate on the Crisis Pregnancy Agency and its refusal to fund Cura. This is entirely inappropriate, particularly as Cura was established with a particular ethos and mandate. It is expected to give out details of Positive Options, abortion referral agencies in other words, which is entirely inappropriate. There is nothing positive about that at all. It is entirely wrong that State funding is being refused to a group that cares for women and their children. This should be addressed immediately.

It has been suggested in this House that we should not grandstand on issues of foreign affairs. I agree but that does not mean we should not discuss foreign affairs, this is no mean country with no mean people. Currently, the Irish Embassy in Russia handles business with Ukraine, a potential accession state and the second largest country in Europe, with a population of 60 million. It would be entirely appropriate, at a time when the second most common spoken language in this country is Polish, that we establish an embassy in the Ukraine to reflect what is happening. Poland is the centre of Europe and for the future we must look east.