International Developments: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
============================================================

Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

We stand with the people of Nunarput and the Inuit people's right to self-determination. They certainly do not want to be invaded or taken over by Donald Trump but neither do they want their future controlled by the Kingdom of Denmark. This is the problem.
Yesterday, along with Deputy Duncan Smith of the Labour Party, I met with the German ambassador to discuss Daniel Tatlow-Devally.
He is an Irish citizen who is languishing in a German prison since August because he protested against Elbit Systems, which has armed Israel's genocide. Germany is one of the biggest exporters of weapons and one of the biggest supporters of the Israeli State, despite the genocidal massacre, years of apartheid, the siege of Gaza and so on. Daniel is languishing in a prison, 23 hours a day. He is allowed two half-hour visits a month. He is not even allowed hug his parents. He is screened off. His books are vetted so he cannot get his own books. He is going to be in prison until at least the middle of the year. He is being held under legislation for organised crime. They did engage in civil disobedience against Elbit Systems but Elbit Systems is providing the weapons to slaughter the people of Gaza in a genocidal massacre. He was acting in good faith and now he is languishing in a German prison.
That speaks to the Government's allies, its partners, the coalition of the willing, who are now angry because the interests of Europe have been infringed. They are quite happy when Venezuela is attacked and when their partners in Europe continue to provide the weapons for Israel to commit the genocide. They continue to have normal relationships with the United Arab Emirates as they provide the weapons to the RSF to commit a genocide in Sudan which has killed 150,000 people, or the Saudi dictatorship. We have the justified criticism of the Iranian regime for brutal repression of its own people, which should be condemned, but at the same time we go on trade missions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are even more brutal dictatorships. I refer also to the Egyptian regime, which is backing another faction in Sudan and is also guilty of complicity with the horrors that have displaced 12 million people there and led to 150,000 deaths. Surely this should prompt an end to the double standards of European governments and actual action against the bullying of Trump and his imperialism.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21