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

I also want to ask about Ireland and RTÉ's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, particularly in light of the horrific treatment by Israel of the Palestinians, the fact of an apartheid state in Israel and the systematic, regular and relentless flouting of international law and the human rights and civil rights of the Palestinians by Israel. I put it to the Taoiseach in simple terms - were people right to boycott apartheid South Africa? Most people around the world think we were. They are of the view that the boycott had a significant impact on bringing down apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela testified to that. Can the Taoiseach provide any reason for the arguments which justified the boycott against apartheid South Africa not applying to Israel? To my mind, they do in spades? To a major extent, what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is even worse than what was done to black people in South Africa. Is the call for a boycott, sanctions and divestment and also the boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel not justified?

If we are to deal with the rise of the far right, we first need to understand that what is happening is not a peculiarly British phenomenon. It is happening all across Europe and we need to pull the rug from under these people. The way to do so is to deal with issues such as deprivation, alienation from the political system, homelessness and so on. All of these things are on the increase right across the Continent. At the informal meeting where the strategic goals for the European Union were being set out, was there any acknowledgement that there is a real problem with poverty, deprivation and homelessness, not just in this country but right across Europe, and that unless we address those issues as a matter of urgency, the growth of the far right will continue?

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