Foreign Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is 50 years old now. To put on record the context here, it is currently occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco. MINURSO was set up in order to safeguard and facilitate a referendum. That was in 1991. There has been no referendum. Discussions in the early and late 2000s about a referendum delivered no referendum. The fundamental principle here is that of self-determination but the Sahrawi people, the vast bulk of whom are in exile, with the bulk of the population living in refugee camps in southern Algeria, have been denied that right to self-determination for decades, for generations. I appreciate that the Irish Government has taken the right position on many resolutions but it may need to take a more robust position because the positions of other governments are beginning to slide away from that principle of self-determination. That needs to be challenged by the Irish Government.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21