Dr. John Reynolds:

On the Deputy's second question, if Ireland takes seriously its role as an actor in the international community, the work should not just stop with this Bill. Obviously, there is a huge struggle at European Union level to try to move things forward. There are different competing camps and perspectives. However, the EU, as well as the UN, is somewhere that Ireland can really intervene and take this beyond the national context.

It is important to note there is a summit going on right now in Bogotá, Colombia, led by the Hague Group. That group is made up primarily of global south states that have come together to say we need to transform international law to make it more progressive, and to enforce it more progressively, because the way the likes of Israel, Russia and the United States are acting is undermining the very principles of international justice, human rights and dignity. That initiative is being led by the global south but it is essential for states like Ireland, Spain and others that have been trying to push things at European level to engage in the wider global context and also bring it into the UN.