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

As I said yesterday, I am very clear that the violence in Gaza has to stop. I believe Hamas should stop firing rockets as well, and that has killed people. Equally, I have been very clear that the response from the Israeli Government has been wholly disproportionate and wrong. It has been ruthless and brutal. One cannot bomb Gaza without killing innocent children, innocent families and civilians. I am very clear about that. That is my position and has been my position for a long, long time.

In my view, the key to this, ultimately, has to be negotiations around the two-state solution, but the behaviour of Israel over recent years has made that more and more challenging, and more and more difficult, in terms of settlements, annexation of land and so forth. There has been very little moderation in recent times or engagement in terms of getting a settlement in the Middle East.

Ireland has strong views on this, and always had strong views and put forward strong views. In fact, it was the late Brian Lenihan Snr., as a Fianna Fáil Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was the first Minister in Europe, I think, to recognise the Palestinians’ right to a homeland. We have been very consistent as a party in that regard. When I was Minister for Foreign Affairs, I visited Gaza in the aftermath of a war there to witness the devastation at first hand.

What I also witnessed and reflected on in particular was the European Union's strong support of UNRWA, the United Nations relief organisation which provides a range of supports to Gazans and Palestinians on the West Bank, from education supports to social supports to economic supports. That needs to be acknowledged but it never gets acknowledged in the debate. It is always one that is condemnatory of stances that the President of the Commission might take but no one on the far left ever acknowledges that Europe is not an imperialist power or anything like that. There is this constant negativity about everything that Europe does without balancing it with some of the positive things that Europe does. Europe, overall, has been a force for positivity in the Middle East, underpinning a lot of economic and social supports and governance supports to try to help to get the capacity for self-governance going.

There are different perspectives across the 27 EU member states, and let us not pretend there are not. Some are historic and some relate back to history, and that is the reality. It is easy to stand up in the Chamber and lambast the Union as if it was a coherent whole in terms of this issue. It is not. It is not one coherent entity on this; it brings together a consensus view.

Ireland's view is very strongly that the type of behaviour by the Israeli Government is wholly disproportionate and wrong. Likewise, we are equally of the view that Hamas should not be firing indiscriminately into Israel, threatening innocent lives. No one so far who has spoken, apart from Deputy Kelly, has condemned that and said that was wrong too, because it is wrong and it has been wrong all along the way. Hamas has enjoyed support from other regimes which would be far better off not doing that, because this can only be resolved in a peaceful way, ultimately. People have to coexist and people have to live in a shared space, and what has been going on for far too long is utterly unacceptable.

Ireland's role, in my view, is to work as best we can, as the small nation that we are, to see if we can help to persuade others to move towards resolution. Of course, I fully accept that the public in Ireland are very seized by this issue and have been consistently over the years, and I understand that. There is an innate sense of justice and fair play among Irish people, and that is what we want for Palestinians in particular, and their right to a homeland. That is our position.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs attended the EU foreign ministers meeting earlier this week, where agreement and consensus were reached on the need for a ceasefire. That, in itself, was not easy but consensus did emerge, ultimately, in regard to that. I have not spoken to President von der Leyen yet but we are having a Council meeting on Monday evening and Tuesday. There is a range of issues already on the agenda but we will obviously be raising this issue also, and the foreign ministers have spoken in regard to it.

Deputy Bríd Smith raised the issue of fracked gas and climate change. The Cabinet this week passed a significant statement that will emerge from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in regard to the importation of fracked gas into the country and outlining the Government's position in that regard. The Deputy was right that the EU legal framework does not facilitate the passing of domestic law that would contravene EU law but the statement is a strong one which will have an impact in terms of planning and so on.

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