David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last Sunday, I spoke at a meeting held on O'Connell Street to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Under this the Chinese militarily absorbed a friendly neighbouring country into its regime.

I remember, in 1959, listening to the broadcast of the BBC as it followed the heroic trek by the Dalai Lama across the Himalayas to India. Thirty years ago I went on a semi-secret mission to Tibet for the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, UNPO, to write a report on human rights. The first thing I noticed on landing in Lhasa was an enormous Chinese cement factory, which was really a small city belching out smoke. The second thing I recognised was that there were military camps all over the place with loudspeakers broadcasting Chinese propaganda. In addition, the road signs that warned of avalanches, broken roads and so on were all in the Chinese language and not in the Tibetan language. The Chinese obviously did not give a damn about the safety or the lives of the Tibetan people. In the Potala Palace, one of the monks secretly handed me a little piece of paper on which was written the words "We are not Chinese. We are Tibetan. We love the Dalai Lama". He was an immensely courageous man because he could have been executed for such an act.

What has happened in Tibet is a plantation and we, in this country, know the sorry history of plantations. Five hundred years later we are still dealing with the effective plantations in this country. Now, as a result of Chinese action, there are more Han Chinese in Tibet than there are Tibetans, which is a tragic, squalid and ghastly situation.

Frank Aiken, who was Minister for External Affairs, supported Tibet but he also even-handedly supported the inclusion of Red China in the United Nations. However, over the years, as a result of pressure from civil servants, the Irish policy has completed changed and been whittled away until now, we ignore Tibet completely. We have abandoned Tibet and recognise instead the "one China" policy. I am ashamed, as an Irishman, that we have done this because we done it for purely financial motives and it is a disgrace. It is also a disgrace that this violent change of policy was never referred to an Irish Parliament and I seek a debate on this issue.

I will make just one comment on Brexit. It seems extraordinary to me that the British would ramp up tariffs at this stage. This is an act of aggression and is a very aggressive position for Britain to take. They are basically talking about annihilating our beef industry. This is not the action of a friendly country and I take my hat off to the calm resolution of our Irish negotiators. We should be very firm on this matter. I wonder that if this should ever come about what steps the European Union will take to counter such action, because there must be countermeasures.I do not want a trade war, but if it is what they want, it is what they will get.