Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

The Taoiseach's statement in recent days that the blockade of Gaza was illegal in itself was very welcome. Therefore, I presume all the actions that have been evaluated in the past three days are illegal acts in international waters in support of an illegal position. The agreed motion between Government and Opposition yesterday had an important paragraph to the effect of conditionalities laid down such as an independent, international and transparent examination of events, safe passage and so on. That should be followed up by further diplomatic initiatives. It is important that the Taoiseach would agree that these initiatives be taken as quickly as possible to implement the spirit of the motion we agreed yesterday.

On the matter of the diplomacy involved, when the United Nations Relief and Works Agency school was bombed in January 2009 the European Union split in that Holland, Germany, Italy and Romania refused to even issue any condemnation whereas a group of five countries, including Ireland, Greece and others, took a very strong position. Does the Taoiseach envisage there being a significant shift in the European position in defining the Common Position and will that Common Position emphasise the importance of compliance with international law?

During the talks at the EU-Latin American and Caribbean meeting, the issue of trade arose. The issue that arose in regard to Colombia was that the Commission suggested it would not delay even a single paragraph of the draft agreement but it was open to the Council, and representation on it, to put human rights conditionalities back into consideration for the text. Therefore, there will be an opportunity at the meeting for those conditionalities to be recovered. Does the Taoiseach support that? That is a request that was made by the international trade union movement and by David Begg in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

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