Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste and his colleagues. The Tánaiste spoke about the situation in Gaza and mentioned that more than 100 people have been killed. The figure from Gaza is 140 Palestinians. It is important to get an accurate figure. Perhaps the document provided by the Tánaiste is dated. Many people were upset by a recent statement made by him on the escalation of violence in Gaza. He stated it was triggered by sustained rocket attacks on towns in Israel.

People, locally, would have a different view on that. They would argue there was a two-week lull in violence at the end of October and beginning of November and that Israeli soldiers invaded Gaza on 8 November, which led to people being killed. It is important to set out the context and sequence of events because the message has been put out that it is because of the Palestinians that this response has been evoked.

One of the people who, I believe, is head of health services there is an Irish passport holder. I talked to a person who has just come back from Gaza and he spoke about some of the incidents that have occurred. He saw with his own eyes two young lads shot when they were up a height trying to fix a water tower. He visited a football pitch which was one of the areas destroyed. That pitch where children played football was supposed to have been one of the military targets. He spoke of the problem experienced by dialysis patients when the electricity is cut off and they are not able to have their treatment. He spoke about the difficulties experienced in the natal clinic with regard to premature babies in incubators when the electricity is cut off. He also spoke about the difficulties of having nowhere to store blood supplies, of the shortage of blood and of trying to cope with the large number of people seeking medical care. It would be useful if we were to talk to that Irish passport holder, who trained in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and worked in Dublin. The person I spoke to said that increasingly patients from some of the areas bordering Gaza are presenting with unusual symptoms. They believe they have been poisoned. They do not know if it is from chemical weapons or uranium shells. They have called for an international investigation into what is going on. Will the Tánaiste support that request as, increasingly, more people in that area are experiencing health problems?

We received a note on public policy in regard to the banning of settlement goods. Could the Tánaiste clarify on what case law his legal advisers are relying to assert that the public policy exception is narrowly construed in this regard?

The Tánaiste spoke about the situation in Syria. We know very little about the opposition group there. Does France know much about it? Did that arise in the discussions on this area? A question was asked in the German Parliament about the Syrian opposition group and the military intelligence there said that a large proportion of its members were made up of foreign volunteers but that there was also a big al-Qaeda element in its make-up. The EU's position regarding the non-formal recognition of that body is a positive step because we do not know from where this group has come.

On the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we just listened to a report on the number of people who have been killed there over a nine-year period. Some 5.4 million people have been killed and 2.2 million people have been displaced. Is there anything the EU can do, particularly in terms of the UN changing its mandate in regard to this area? We need to propose positive solutions to try to resolve conflicts in this region. The Tánaiste spoke about proposals in respect of Mali. Will he raise similar proposals at the next Council meeting to address conflict in that region?