Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My view, and the position of the Government, is that all refugees should be allowed to return to their homes and recover any property expropriated from them. That applies to all refugees and not just Palestinian refugees.

I did not have a chance to hear President Trump's speech in full, although I heard some extracts from it. I am always reluctant to comment on extracts of a speech because comments heard in their entirety are often different from soundbites. I can comment on two matters. I strongly disagree with his assertion that we should abandon globalism in favour of patriotism; the speech seemed to be in favour of nationalism as opposed to globalism. The Government has a different outlook in that regard and we are globalists by nature. We are very much in line with European colleagues in defending and supporting the Iran deal, which we believe has been successful in discouraging Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We stand with our European allies and colleagues in that regard in disagreeing with President Trump's approach to Iran.

The Government recognises the Palestinian people's right to statehood, self-determination and to be treated decently. The programme for Government provides for the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution. It is important to point out that Palestine has not yet been recognised by many other peer countries and many OECD countries do not recognise Palestine as a state. They include Canada, Japan, United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as most western European countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. One of the few exceptions in western Europe is Sweden, and as a consequence of its recognition of Palestine as a state, the Israeli embassy was closed, relations were downgraded and Palestinians did not benefit at all. The country endured some criticism from the US for doing that, so we should bear that in mind when we make any of our decisions.

When I met President Abbas, I had the opportunity to raise with him concerns about the protection of the Christian minority in the Palestinian territories, which has dwindled over the years. I also raised the need to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, LGBT, Palestinians. Decriminalisation has yet to occur in Gaza, although it has occurred on the West Bank. I also raised the need to advance the rights of women. I had a good engagement with the delegation on those points and they responded to my concerns. I encourage other Members when speaking about Palestine not to ignore such matters. We should support Palestinian statehood and self-determination but we should not allow ourselves to be silent when it comes to discussing the treatment of the Christian minority in the Middle East, particularly Palestine, as well as the need to promote women and decriminalise homosexuality in Gaza. I am disappointed when people speak about Palestine but seem to turn a blind eye to such human rights matters.

The delegation was also grateful to Ireland for some of its actions, particularly our support on the Jerusalem matter and voting in the interests of Palestine in the UN General Assembly in opposing the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The delegation also welcomed our support for Palestine's observer status and membership in the UN and the fact that we increased our contribution to UNRWA after the United States reduced its contribution.

Deputy Martin asked about the trade Bill and our advice is that the legislation contravenes a European law and, therefore, cannot be implemented. It would probably be struck down if challenged in the European courts. The advice should not come as any surprise, as trade is an exclusive EU competence and individual countries cannot make their own laws with respect to external trade.

Our UN Security Council campaign does not in any way inhibit us from raising concerns about human rights or objections to the actions of other states. I am sure the countries with which we are competing - Canada and Norway - will take the same view that the fact we are campaigning for votes should not restrain us in saying what needs to be said. The person Deputy Martin asked about is seconded to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and reports to the Tánaiste. As a communications professional, that person is involved with the communications aspect of our campaign for the Security Council.

With regard to the Northern Ireland institutions, Deputies now know that, unfortunately, Northern Ireland holds the international record for the length of time in which a government has not been formed. It is something of great regret that we do not have devolved government in Northern Ireland and people do not have an Executive or Assembly to represent their interests. It is regrettable that we do not have functioning North-South institutions, as they have been there for a number of years. While governments are ultimately there to support parties, there cannot be an Executive formed in Northern Ireland unless Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, are able to do a deal. Both of those parties are involved in breaking the world record as they have been unable to do a deal and form a government. It is deeply regrettable.

To a certain extent, Deputy McDonald protests too much at comments from my Ministers yesterday. It is a fact that Sinn Féin collapsed the Assembly and Executive over the renewable heat incentive, RHI, controversy. When the inquiry is done, it may transpire that Sinn Féin knew more about it sooner than it previously indicated. It is all history now and we must work together to try to get things going again. That is the position.

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