Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages

 

6:05 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has given a clear explication of the Bill and the impact of previous legislation. I am now satisfied that my concerns can be allayed in this matter. This is very welcome and I am pleased the matter has been explained. I had made a note to query if SI 325 of 2012 applied in Ireland. The Minister of State has made it clear that these provisions do apply. The position on the concerns I had that were not specified in the Bill has now been made clear.

I thank my colleague and friend, Senator Paul Bradford, for his intervention and moral support. It is a delicate matter because we are being overwhelmed by trade delegations and visits of friendship and love from various sections of the Chinese establishment. One has to be wary and keep the balance in pushing human rights. This is important, particularly since the Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We must ensure the trade element does not overwhelm the human rights element.

One must also be wary in the most courteous way possible of Chinese delegations. I met a delegation a few days ago to discuss the situation in Tibet. Only one person spoke, the leader of the delegation, who was a Han Chinese and whose address was in Beijing. There were two people dressed in Tibetan costume as part of the delegation. I am unsure whether they were Tibetans, but in any case they were not allowed to speak. That was rather interesting and it illustrated precisely the problem in Tibet, where there are people whose stooges are not even allowed to comment. When asked directly by the Chairman, they said they agreed with their leader. This clearly illustrates the desperate plight of the people in Tibet.

I share the admiration of Senator Paul Bradford for the Chinese people, their immensely ancient and wonderful culture and capacity to survive. He referred to the famines of 100 years ago, but we need not go back 100 years. The Tibetologists, as they describe themselves, referred to the fact that food was sometimes scare before the invasion of 1959. That may have been the case, but they did not suffer the extraordinary famine Mao Tse Tung inflicted on them with his great leap forward, which was simply a great leap into a chasm for the many millions who died of starvation. This is perhaps a rather long-winded way of thanking the Minister of State. I also appreciate the comments of Senator Paul Bradford and I am happy to withdraw the amendments. The Minister of State has certainly satisfied my concerns.

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