John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste has set a parameter for himself and hopefully we will see it.

We seem to be going backwards. What is the approach and where is the roadmap for us to achieve that very legitimate objective of reaching 0.7% of GNI? Perhaps the Tánaiste will touch on that.

I also want to address an issue that I brought up with the Tánaiste on the floor of the Chamber last week, which is the destruction of aid that has gone to Palestine and the West Bank. We are aware that Ireland is part of the West Bank Protection Consortium where we have lodged a claim for the destruction of a fairly substantial amount of aid that was given to the Palestinian people and has been destroyed by Israel. There were EU-funded schools and other structures, and farm solar panels. It was very graphic last year when photographs emerged of aid that had been given, and which still had the Irish Aid stickers on it, and a lot of the materials that had been destroyed by Israel. This claim lodged by the West Bank Protection Consortium goes back a number of years. What measures or actions are being taken in this regard? Getting compensation is tokenistic in many cases, unless greater action is taken against Israel. They are willing to sustain any small little financial penalties but even at that they are not paying out the compensation. What action is being taken to hold Israel to account for the destruction of Irish Aid and donor-funded structures and projects such as that?

There is a commitment within the programme for Government about the recognition of Palestine. When will the Government actually move ahead and honour the express wishes of the Dáil, which took a decision back in 2014 to recognise the state of Palestine? Given the unfortunate trajectory in the area, with an extreme right-wing Government in place in Israel that is committed to destroying more Palestinian homes and to displacing more Palestinians from their land, there is now a policy of apartheid in place by Israel. Many of the well-respected human rights organisations, from Human Rights Watch to Al-Haq, and the UN special rapporteur, Professor Michael Lynk, to Amnesty International, have called it out as apartheid. When will Ireland officially recognise the state of Palestine? What are we going to do other than the tokenistic stuff around the West Bank Protection Consortium, important and all as it is? Greater action needs to be taken to hold Israel to account. What is the Tánaiste's view on the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018? Fianna Fáil did support the Bill when it was introduced and came to Second Stage in the Dáil.

What is the Tánaiste's view now in relation to the occupied territories Bill? Is now the time-----