Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of questions across a few different issues but I will try to be as brief as possible. In respect of the dashed hopes of victims' groups, North and South, due to the failure to sign off on a truth recovery process in the recent agreement, can the Minister enlighten the committee on the process for the future? How is he going to ensure the British Government lives up to a motion taken twice by the Houses of the Oireachtas, calling on it to release files on Irish citizens killed by the British state through collusion or by its state forces? I welcome the representatives of Justice for the Forgotten who are in the Visitors Gallery. The Minister answered some of my other questions about the agreement in the Chamber earlier on.

Given that some EU countries have rowed back on their stated commitments to take and settle refugees from war-torn Syria and elsewhere, can the Minister confirm that Ireland still agrees to abide by its public commitment to take, I think, 4,000 refugees? Is it intended to segregate those refugees in any way or will we treat them as the UNHCR encourages us to do?

I know the Minister is aware of the case of Ibrahim Halawa. Is he aware that he is stated to have been on hunger strike for 34 days? If that is true, it means he could possibly be dead by the time of his trial, which is set for 15 December, two days after his twentieth birthday. Has the new ambassador to Egypt been to visit Ibrahim? Will the Minister raise his case at the Council meeting? He was a teenager at the start of all this, now he is nearly 20, and he is an EU citizen who has been held without trial for many years.

We discussed labelling earlier, so I am not going to go over that. Given that the settlements are illegal, will the Minister ensure at the Council meeting that the EU condemns the decision by the Israeli Government to approve a further 800 homes to be built in the occupied territories? That decision is contrary to EU laws and the UN. Will he ask that penalties be triggered which were supposed to be invoked under the Euro-Mediterranean agreement, other EU trade agreements with Israel, or even the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, which he was quoting earlier? We should ensure that Israel knows of the EU's displeasure on this.

The Minister mentioned the huge escalation of violence in the Palestinian and Israeli area, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 70 Palestinians and 11 Israelis in October alone. Nearly 7,000 citizens have been injured and more than 1,000 Palestinians arrested. Does the Minister believe, as he said in his speech, that any security response to the violence must be proportionate? Does he believe those figures show a proportionate response by Israel? If he does not, what action will he encourage the EU to take to ensure the escalation is reduced and that, at the very least, there is a proportionate response by both sides to any future escalation?

Ethiopia was mentioned. In respect of disaster planning and humanitarian aid, are the stocks held by Ireland replenished? Are they ready if there is a humanitarian disaster? There is a cyclical weather pattern called El Niño which is predicted to hit the Americas again this year. In the past, it has caused huge disasters. Ireland and other EU countries have played a great role in terms of humanitarian aid. Most countries are coming out of recession and stocks may be reduced. They should be replenished and available so that we are able to help those countries that may need aid in the next months.