Ms Hilary Minch:

I wish to respond to a number of points raised by Deputy Eric Byrne. The Christian population of Palestine has declined dramatically and the main reason Christians give in research for the decline is the occupation. They are being driven from The Holy Land, from Palestine because of the economic impact of the occupation.

In relation to the situation on the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority and, in some ways, Hamas-Fatah are not so relevant because the whole of the West Bank and Gaza are under military occupation. A certain amount of administration work is done by the Palestinian Authority and the different parties, but Israel has absolute control over the land, the sea, the air, over who comes in and goes out, over taxes and trade. The level of administration work that can be done is very limited. The Deputy asked whether the Palestinian Authority was ready to govern, but we should it a chance. The World Bank published a very interesting report in which it talked about the different elements of governance that needed to be in place for a state to be run. It is in no doubt that these elements are in place such that Palestine could be run as a state.