Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----and the debt issue separately. Whoever decided to group them should have at least divided them up in that way because this is totally unsatisfactory.

First, in terms of the debt issue and the retrospective debt, for three and a half years the Taoiseach and the Government defined relief on banking debt as European agreement on retrospectively funding the debts that were effectively imposed on Ireland. In fact, two senior Ministers went so far as to say that up to €60 billion could be retrieved in such a manner. That followed the famous 2012 meeting when Mario Monti and those others forced Chancellor Merkel's hand but what we have witnessed since then essentially has been the unravelling of that decision. The Taoiseach has completely changed tack and the idea of getting such a sizeable retrospective deal has abated; he has given up on that. He now uses vague language to do with existing options, and no one quite knows what those options are. There was always an option to sell the banks later on. That was never off the table, but that was not the point. The point was that Europe imposed a solution in Ireland at a time when Europe itself did not have solutions for what was a wider eurozone crisis, not just an Irish crisis. That is at the kernel of this, and it did not treat Ireland fairly. The former Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, said that the 2012 meeting was a game changer. It has not turned out to be a game changer. Can the Taoiseach confirm to the House that the European leaders are not prepared to do a deal on Ireland's debt retrospectively? The separation of sovereign and banking debt, which was proclaimed, will not be retrospective. Can the Taoiseach give a straight answer regarding what he is being told now by Chancellor Merkel and others?

Second, regarding the Palestinian crisis and the appalling strategy being taken by the Israeli Government, we have condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel but those rocket attacks were no justification for the declaration of war on Palestine, and on Gaza in particular, by the Israeli Government. It cannot bomb with impunity and do those kinds of military operations without killing many innocent women and children, and innocent civilians generally. What was appalling was the lack of any pulling back when innocent children running across a beach were murdered. To be honest, the Taoiseach pulled his punches in terms of the UN committee on human rights but there was a lack of unequivocal condemnation of that kind of activity emanating, in my view, from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and from others. I got the sense that there was a decided lack of comfort within Government circles about what was transpiring and how to react to it. There comes a time when we have to say that the use of such lethal force on a civilian population had no justification and was a disproportionate response to what was happening.

There is a sense that the Government has a particular position on this debate than that it had three and a half years ago in that it was far more tolerant of Israeli strategy, which I believe is a flawed strategy. I have no difficulty in terms of Israel as a state in the sense that I recognise its right to exist and I recognise the two-state solution as the ideal solution, but I am not sure Israel believes in a two-state solution. I am not sure that its political strategy is designed to achieve that. In fact, one would have to come to the conclusion that its political strategy is to do the exact opposite. The recent announcements in terms of further land settlements is flying in the face of United Nations rules, regulations and law and makes it far more difficult to ever have a two-state solution or a Palestinian state that has the capacity to be effective as a Palestinian state.

All the Israeli strategy succeeds in doing is undermining moderate opinion within Gaza and moderate opinion within the West Bank, and undermines Abbas and his Government, Fayyad and all those who showed that progress could be made if there was some dialogue. It is almost as if Israel has a vested interest in ensuring that the extremes stay vibrant and in existence. People may disagree with my position on that but that is my sense of it. There is an urgency for Europe in that regard. The UN Secretary-General summed it up when the conflict ended when he asked - "what do we do now?". Do we rebuild it yet again? How many more hundreds of millions of people will come from Europe to rebuild Gaza for another war in two years time, which will level everything again? I recall being at Foreign Affairs Council meetings at which Tony Blair said the sewage treatment plant would be rebuilt. None of the promises made after the flotilla disasters, which the Taoiseach might remember, happened. It is an appalling crime against humanity that an entire population is imprisoned to the degree it is, and western states and the European states have not called it what it is, for a range of reasons. It is time some countries within the European Council, including Ireland, spoke a few truths now and again about this issue. I ask the Taoiseach to give me some indication of what transpired at the summit meeting with regard to that issue.

Third, regarding Ukraine, I welcome the Taoiseach's support for the tough sanctions against Russia in terms of its aggression against a neighbouring state. The Sinn Féin leader said there seemed to be a different response from the Government side to Gaza than there would be to Ukraine. One could make the same statement about the Sinn Féin's stance in terms of Gaza and Ukraine.

See this speech in context