Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Of course, the reason there is such a recruitment and retention crisis in the Defence Forces is, frankly, because people cannot live on the poverty wages they are being paid. Not just members of the Defence Forces, but more directly their families have, as we all now know, long protested and campaigned on this issue. It is a disgrace to us as an Oireachtas if we praise the blue helmets and our peacekeepers and bask in their reflected glory and then, when they return home, pay them poverty wages. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The Tánaiste has been in the Middle East a number of times since becoming Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. I was in Palestine in the West Bank just before Christmas. I made extensive visits; met a wide range of groups and individuals; met each of the political parties or factions on the Palestinian side; saw at first hand the outrage and the breach of international law that the illegal settlements represent; spoke to families, children and young people who had first-hand daily experience of the harassment and brutalisation at the hands of the Israeli defence forces; reflected that Oslo, it now seems, might be dead; despaired at the fact that the international community sits on its hands and allows the Israeli state to act with absolute impunity; reflected on the fact that there is actually an answer to all this, that there is, if the international community were so minded, still one last chance to deliver a two-state solution; and then wondered - and I ask the Taoiseach the question today - will he visit Palestine? It would be extremely important if he did so. Furthermore, can we and can the Government move to recognition of the state of Palestine, as mandated by this Oireachtas? When the occupied territories Bill comes before us in the Dáil, will the Taoiseach please change position and do the right thing, in accordance with the spirit and the letter of international law, and support that legislation?

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