Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If it did not arise, it should have. What interaction did the those voting on behalf of Ireland have with the Minister or his officials prior to the vote? Do we just assume that they are going to do the right thing? I will leave that element to one side for now.

I have a number of questions regarding the European consensus on development. I note that Mr. Gaffey, the Director General of the Development Co-operation Directorate of the Department is here and perhaps he would like to comment too. There appears to be a move by some towards tying overseas aid. Such moves are not being made by Ireland and indeed, we have an excellent track record in that regard. However, it looks like there is a focus, from an EU perspective, on development co-operation in the context of security, commerce, migration and other objectives. Ireland's stance has always been in favour of untied overseas development aid and that should remain the case. I ask the Minister to clarify whether this has been discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council in any detail. Ireland can take a very good lead in any discussions on that matter because our track record is excellent.

I wish to turn now to the question of Palestine and the Occupied Territories in particular. Has the EU Foreign Affairs Council discussed the issue of the destruction of EU funded property by Israeli armed forces? Medical facilities, schools and other EU funded facilities have been destroyed, which is a big issue on which the EU should speak with one voice. I have engaged with departmental officials in recent weeks to try advance further Ireland's position with regard to the recognition of the state of Palestine as part of a two state solution. I ask the Minister to outline the EU's perspective on this question. Is the Irish Government moving closer to recognising the state of Palestine? I believe it would be helpful if we were to put our money where our mouth is, state that Palestine has equal status with the state of Israel and recognise both states formally. We should get off the fence and do that.

However, I do not want us to do anything that would be detrimental to any new discussions that may take place in the aftermath of the recent visit of the new US President to the region and his calls for re-engagement. I ask the Minister to give his views on how he sees that situation at this moment in time. There are lots of other issues in which I am interested but I will leave it at that for now, given the time constraints to which the Chairman has referred. I hope we will have other opportunities to engage with the Minister on the many items raised this morning in more detail. Again, I thank the Minister for his presentation.