Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on my statement and the questions about Gaza with which I concluded. Jerusalem was discussed at the Council meeting, but I would like a response on the issue of Gaza. I do not know whether the Minister of State can tell us much about what the Minister, Deputy Coveney, did there last week. He met some people, but they were linked to one faction, namely, the Ramallah-based Government, and so he should have. However, that he did not meet elected representatives from Gaza itself is a problem. Let us remember that Gaza was the trigger for the Israeli assaults. Israel did not accept the outcome of a democratic election and then attacked. Last week, the Minister saw some of the consequences of that. He was clearly aware of them, yet he has reinforced the Israeli position by not talking to the representatives of the people of Gaza. It legitimises Israel's position, which we should not do. At the very least, we should be balanced. Some reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah is now happening.

I have received a direct request from the Speaker of the elected representatives in the Gaza Parliament for us to send an all-party delegation to Gaza to meet them or for us to invite the Speaker to the Oireachtas. We should do that if we are serious about talking to all sides. According to the request, since Ireland has incredible credibility among all Palestinian factions, there is nothing that we could propose that they would not seriously consider. That puts us in a privileged position. We should use our credibility to talk to the political representatives in Gaza. The Government should consider doing so, given the appalling and intolerable humanitarian situation there. I was told about some of it and the statistics show more. Anecdotally, people are suffering bad health conditions - for example, kids and others in need of dialysis and new kidneys - but they cannot get out to get treatment. Apparently, kidneys are being sold for €30,000 and €40,000 in Cairo, but someone needs €5,000 to bribe an Egyptian guard to get out through Rafah. That is how it works. The number of people being allowed out for medical reasons has reduced significantly.

We need to intervene. We have a great deal of credibility. We should use it by engaging with the political representatives in Gaza. I hope that the Government will consider doing so, as this request comes straight from Gaza.

See this speech in context