Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo the sentiments of my colleague. Democracy is sacred and from it flows all other rights and freedoms. The peaceful co-existence across the EU and the senseless carnage of two world wars remind us that democracy, elections, and dialogue are always preferable to war and violence.The Catalan Parliament has called a referendum, to be held on Sunday, 1 October, with a simple binary question on whether people want Catalonia to be an independent country in the form of a republic. The response to the proposed referendum has been a General Franco-style crackdown by the Spanish Government, with the seizure of 10 million ballot papers, the arrest of referendum activists and the threat of arrest for any mayor who facilitates the holding of a vote. It appears Madrid may be reverting to the type of dictatorial regime that Franco perfected; the type of regime perfected by Castro in Cuba and Pinochet in Chile, where dissent ensured a person disappeared or was put up against Castro's infamous firing squad walls. Today, thousands of people in Chile are without loved ones because they had the audacity to look for free and fair elections. In the case of Castro's Cuba, people were sent to prison work camps because they were Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexual or deemed by Castro to be out of step with the Communist ideology. This is what happens when democracy is eroded and dialogue stops. This is why freely elected leaders should be careful in their use of language and their praise for deceased dictators.

The recent independence votes in Scotland in 2014, Montenegro in 2006 and Québec in 1995 have inspired the Catalan people to have a referendum. In the spirit of the EU and in the interest of dialogue and understanding, I call on the Seanad to invite President Puigdemont of Catalonia to address us. We have a precedent in Seanad Eireann, offering a warm welcome to Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament. We need to hear about what is taking place in another EU member state. We need the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Taoiseach to condemn the attempts to curtail democracy in another EU state. Let us bear in mind that in this Chamber and elsewhere in Ireland there were expressions of outrage about the democratic election of the current US President. How about we find our voice now in relation to the attempt by the Spanish Government to close down and intimidate a democratic vote for the Catalan people?