Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for his intervention. He has detailed the situation in Gaza and the challenges we face in a European context. We are not a federal union but a collection of democracies. That presents a challenge when trying to get unanimity. The huge advantage is when we get unanimity we are exceptionally strong. Unfortunately, we have not reached that threshold yet. We are doing everything we can to shift the dial. We saw the two UN votes. I had hoped at one stage we were moving a bit further but it has been challenging. The Government will work as hard as it can to get the text conclusions agreed. I noted at the last European Council meeting the President of the Council said we will have to have text in the conclusions at the next Council meeting. We will work hard on that.

The Deputy is right on the US. It is important we continue engagement with officials and politicians in the US. That will be critical. Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan are in the region trying to work on a ceasefire. I know people are frustrated. Foreign policy is very emotive. As a country, we have to be careful to do the right thing that yields results. Sometimes doing something might make you feel good and you can get a press release out of it but it does not make any difference. That is why the Government has a narrow tightrope to walk when it tries to bring more countries on board for the two-state solution, which it did in the eighties, or in terms of recognising the state of Palestine. It is important to get other countries on board so that when it is made, it is a bold move and brings others with it.

We will continue our efforts and will continue supporting UNRWA. That is important and has been raised in discourse. Members should think of the context. A couple of months ago, they were trying to cut off aid in Palestine when that Commissioner made a tweet. Ireland was the first to stand up, be counted and say that could not happen and that the Commission had no jurisdiction to do that. It is important to look at the context of UNRWA. It has 13,000 people working there supporting the region and 100 of them have been killed. That is the challenge they face, what they offer in the region and why the Government has to support them. We have given €18 million of the €36 million allocation through UNRWA and the work it is doing. In areas like that the Government has been counted; where it matters and is helping vulnerable people. We have to continue doing that at pace and, in the wider geopolitical region, use our voice, which has clout in the US and will hopefully build greater coalitions in the European context.

We will get that paper to the committee so it can look at it. There are many thresholds that trigger unanimity along the accession path. In the current European context, that created a massive debate but it got over the first hurdle. We do not want to be going through that display every single time. There are many legal issues that have to be looked over but the committee can have a look at it as well.