Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo the comments of committee members about the courtesy and help of the officials in the Minister's office and in the passport office. The past two weeks have been difficult for all of us in dealing with constituents' queries and I want to record our appreciation of the work of the staff in the Minister's office and the passport office in dealing with large numbers.

I receive numerous queries from Northern Ireland. Everyone in Fermanagh and Tyrone tells me they have cousins in Cavan who know and support me. It is a great introduction but it creates difficulties for me. We know the pressures the office is under and appreciate the assistance.

I live close to the Border and I am in Northern Ireland at least once or twice every week doing my ordinary constituency work in Cavan-Monaghan. Over the past few weeks I have attended several football matches and other events where I have met people, some of whom I do not know, who are frustrated and angry that we do not have the institutions up and running in Northern Ireland. They realise that many day-to-day issues need to be tackled, including housing, jobs, employment, rural development and regeneration. These are the same day-to-day issues we have in our jurisdiction. They are doubly concerned about Brexit. I hope that the Minister and his counterparts in the British Government can encourage the two major parties in Northern Ireland to have meaningful talks and to get those institutions back up and running. It is shameful that the institutions have not been operating since early 2017 given the many challenging day-to-day issues and the bigger picture of Brexit. We wish the Minister well in whatever talks he has with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the political parties there because we all want to see those institutions up and working on behalf of the people.

Much of the meeting was devoted to the Gaza situation and the Middle East peace process. Recently we had Omar Barghouti of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions, the human rights movement, was here. I asked him whether the two-state solution is still feasible and viable. He said while it is not the opinion of his association, he thinks it is not viable. Perhaps it is an issue we could discuss in the future. He referred to the shrinking space for Palestinians and the intense colonisation of Palestinian land, and said life is being made impossible for Palestinians. He said:

We expect the territory to become unliveable in a year and a half. The West Bank is not unliveable yet but it is becoming extremely difficult for Palestinians to sustain any life with the encroaching settlements taking over the most fertile lands and water resources.

That type of commentary has been echoed by other contributors at this committee. The Minister's opening remarks and his response to colleagues indicated that concern. We might have a discussion on that here in the future. The Minister said at the outset that all colleagues in the EU were supportive of the two-state solution. Is there any discussion at the Council about how feasible this will be?