Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The European People's Party, EPP, will be in Dublin in the next couple of days. The Taoiseach is in Brussels this morning attending the summit of heads of state discussing the issue of Russia, Ukraine and Crimea. I draw the attention of the House to the danger that we might slip into sanctions and the importance of negotiations before people start to talk of sanctions. I looked at some of the literature in the area. An article in International Organization by Daniel W. Drezner states that:

To analysts, the policymaker's reliance on sanctions is puzzling; the scholarly assessment of sanctions is that they fail to yield significant concessions. There is a long and distinguished line of authors who argue that sanctions do not work. This negative assessment has hardened since the end of the Cold War.

The author must have known that Senator Bacik would be replying today because his article goes on to state, "Even international lawyers that stress the role of international institutions argue that sanctions are a weak tool of enforcement". Lest we drift into sanctions and adopt a load of policies that do not work, may I stress the importance of the negotiations knowing that, based on the record of sanctions they probably will not work, and the importance of agreement? I wish the Taoiseach and the EPP well when they discuss these issues.