Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I can, perhaps, arrange for officials of my Department to meet them. With regard what the European Union is doing about Israel, it is clear the blockade on Gaza should be lifted. We must get moving on the talks between Israel and Palestine, which have been stalled for a long period. I was encouraged by what President Obama said in his speech a few days before his arrival in Ireland. When the Taoiseach and I met President Obama, this was one of the issues we discussed with him. We discussed the necessity for both the United States and the European Union to use our good offices to get talks started again and to try and get a settlement to what has been a long, difficult dispute which has caused so much grief. Gaza is very much a central part of that.

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