Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was not well last week so I am interested to hear about loss and damage because we have touched on the matter in the climate committee. The witnesses spoke about reaching €1.5 billion per year by 2030 and then sustaining that sum forever. I thank them all for coming in and for the work they do.

How are their aid workers abroad, particularly those in Gaza? The number of aid workers who have lost their lives in the conflict there in the past 40 days surpasses the number of aid workers who have been killed in any conflict so far. The UN has recorded the highest ever number since it started records. How are the witnesses' contacts abroad? I ask the witnesses to send them our solidarity from Ireland.

It is a very bewildering time for people. Mr. MacSorley is in Sudan now, where there is a civil war, a power struggle between two military actors or a military coup or conflict.

What is happening in Gaza is much worse and bewildering because we are dealing with democracy. It is not a civil war or a place where law and order has broken down. This is very deliberate. It is what they would consider law and order. That is depressing and upsetting for aid workers in the region.

Aid cannot be used as a fig leaf for the kind of destruction that is going on in Gaza at the moment. The idea of a humanitarian pause so that aid could be delivered safely and the war would resume after people have had a good meal is repulsive.

We discussed accountability for Israel, in particular. What kind of finance is it expected to provide? Money has come from the EU and other countries for Gaza. Israel has wrecked the place; UN schools and hospitals have been demolished. There is debris all over the place. I saw people sticking Israeli flags into mounds of rubble over the past few days. What kind of consequences should Israel have to face? Could there be some way of making it pay for the destruction it has caused?

A large amount of carbon has been released by all of the bombs and rockets. It is horrendous. We have discussed climate change and rebuilding. A lot of carbon is in the concrete that has been destroyed. It is appalling. I am grateful to the witnesses for their energy and commitment to their work. Could they talk about aid being used as a fig leaf when a deliberate war is being waged upon a defenceless people by a world power?