Minister for Justice defends Taoiseach’s White House visit
By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association
The Minister for Justice has defended the Taoiseach’s meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, saying he did an “excellent job”.
At Leader’s Questions on Wednesday, the Labour Party and People Before Profit leaders criticised Micheál Martin’s appearance with the US president at St Patrick’s Day events in Washington DC.
Labour’s Ivana Bacik said: “The Taoiseach sat silent, utterly sidelined, while US President Trump ranted and raved about Europe, about Nato, about wind farms, about Keir Starmer, about immigration and much more.”
And she said it was “deeply disappointing” he did not “push back harder against Trump’s delusional ramblings”.
“In particular to condemn Trump’s illegal war on Iran,” she said.
Representing the Government, Jim O’Callaghan said: “Any fair-minded person looking at the events in the White House yesterday would recognise that the Taoiseach did an excellent job in extremely challenging circumstances.”
Had the Labour Party been in power, he said, Ms Bacik would not have made the trip as she had “made the decision in advance of the visit that the Taoiseach shouldn’t go there”.
“So had the Labour Party been in Government, there would have been no engagement in respect of the United States of America.”
“I thought it was a real advantage for the Taoiseach to be there yesterday as the leader of a European country that isn’t a member of Nato.
“I think he did Ireland and Europe proud in terms of setting out the values of Europe, and indeed in setting back some of the rhetoric of President Trump, which, as everyone can appreciate, can be difficult at times.”
People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett criticised the Taoiseach for celebrating “our national day with this warmonger”.
He said Mr Martin “repeatedly claims that this country is committed to international law”, but did not offer “a single word of criticism of the flagrant murderous breaches of international law that Trump and Israel are engaged in”.
Mr O’Callaghan said there was a “real benefit” in the Taoiseach going there and being able “to speak out, frankly, more so than any other international leaders who’ve been there recently have done”.
He added: “He was able to speak out in respect of Keir Starmer, he was able to speak out in respect of immigration, and he was able to speak out in respect of Ireland’s view that we should resolve disputes through pacific methods.”
He said in politics “self awareness is an important characteristic” that “also applies to us as a country”.
He added: “Ireland is a small non-military country, what we say is effective in terms of diplomacy,”
He said the country had been able to stand up to “people who are our friends” and say to them”we think you have gone down the wrong road”
