A Unionist peer has called on the Chinese government to raise the issue of Irish human rights abuses with the Government.
Lord Laird of Artigarvan, the co-chair of the cross-Border implementation body on Irish and Ulster-Scots, said he was forced to appeal to the Chinese after his request for a meeting with the Minister for Justice was rejected.
Lord Laird said he had sought a meeting with Mr O'Donoghue to discuss the inclusion of a member of the Ulster-Scots community on the Human Rights Commission but was told it would not be "constructive". "The usual thing in politics is to meet somebody and make a few sympathetic noises and then kick it into touch, but they didn't even do that," he said.
He said this was typical of the Government's approach to human rights, with other examples being the fact that it had not changed the special place of Irish. He said the special place given to Irish was in fact illegal under international law.
"If the Dublin Government won't speak to me about human rights for Ulster Scots, I'll have to get the Chinese government to do it for me," he said. Commenting on reports that human rights was to feature heavily in the Government's discussions with the Chinese Premier, Lord Laird said: "The Dublin government's hands aren't clean. Their human rights record is extremely poor and they should spend less time criticising other people.
"The whole ethic of the Republic is monocultural, and it must be multicultural to fit in with the European Charter of Human Rights," he said.
Lord Laird said the Chinese embassy in Dublin had been "most interested" by his call but was not sure what steps it would take to raise the matters he brought to its attention. The Chinese embassy was unable to comment.