Mr. Brian ? ?igeartaigh:

Deputy Boyd Barrett is quite right; there is a grotesque double standard. The international community and, specifically, our political leaders in Ireland hand impunity on a plate to the Israeli State. They always have done, and there is a stark contrast with the response to Vladimir Putin. This is why we campaign. This impunity is what enrages ordinary people in Ireland. It is what people feel so strongly about and it is why tens of thousands of people with hand-drawn placards are walking through the streets. This double standard is not lost on anyone. People can see when the Government is scrambling to posture as doing something, when it suddenly reaches for the fig leaf of the EUROMED trade agreement. After nearly two decades of us campaigning about the EUROMED trade agreement, it suddenly starts talking about that because it is a handy fig leaf given, as the Government very well knows, any change would be blocked at a European level by Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and so forth. Voters see what is happening and nothing has been happening from the Irish Government. No action has been taken, and that is why this Bill is so imperative.