John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Mr. Whyte, you mentioned recalibrating, resilience and being there for 70 years. I can only speak for myself, but I am sure it is mirrored by other people, that the sense of disillusionment, helplessness, hopelessness and doom I would feel when reading reactions or seeing a chink of light get shut off means my heart literally and physically sinks, and I am not within a micro-distance of the situation that you are so intimately connected with. This is not a clichéd question. What motivates you and other UNRWA staff? What keeps you at the tiller here, because there is no end in sight? It is one of the most dispiriting, disillusioning and dark things - you could go on. Seamus Heaney once had the line, which I have used before, that sanity has lost its voice or sanity has become hoarse. It has stopped talking about it. It is not a vainglorious question for you, and thank you and your UNRWA personnel - the world owes you a debt of thanks - but what is it that keeps you going?